David Nicholls has warned his fans not to attempt to visit the locations in his new novel. While those who loved the hit Netflix adaptation of Nichollsâ novel One Day have been able to visit locations from the series, such as the Lewisham pizza joint Bella Roma or Charlton Lido, the locations in You Are Here âare genuinely all made upâ, the author said.
The novel, which was published last month and follows a midlife couple as they hike through the Lake District, contain a disclaimer from the author explaining that while he has âtried to describe the landscape as accurately as possible, the pubs, hotels and restaurants along the way are all entirely fictionalâ, and he has also âtaken a few small liberties with the routeâ.
Speaking at the Hay festival in Powys, Nicholls said that on the first night of their trip his characters stay in a pub âon the shores of a lake â that pub doesnât existâ.
âDonât try and book it because it really doesnât exist,â he said. âThey might have been inspired by a stay somewhere else but theyâre not real places.â
Nicholls, who is known for writing romantic fiction such as One Day and Starter For Ten, also said he would now âfind it really hard to write a novel which was entirely about 20- or 30-somethings dating â which is strange because when I began my career thatâs largely what I was writing.â
The author has been with his partner, Hannah Weaver, for more than 20 years and said having not âbeen on a date since 1997â, the modern dating world of apps seems âsuch a different experience, in many ways so much more direct and frankâ than what he experienced.
âThere was a random quality to meeting someone back then. You went to a lot of dinner parties in the hope you might be sat next to somebody. It was very random and unlikely that something would happen, and now thereâs a frankness and directness â there are tools, for want of a better word.â
Being so unfamiliar with that world, it would not be âsomething Iâm sure I could ever write aboutâ, he said. âEspecially when I meet so many brilliant younger writers who are writing about it really well.â
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