Neil Nixon

Neil Nixon (born Workington, England), is an author, journalist

and academic. He has combined a career in education with writing

books, articles, scripts and comedy material. Nixon’s published

works include titles on the paranormal, popular music, football and two

novels published under the name of Stanley Manly. In 1999 he founded

the UK’s first full-time higher educational course in Professional Writing. Nixon’s scripts

include material for television and radio. His radio play Mr Lennon, broadcast in 2001, was nominated

for a Sony Radio Academy Award for Best Single Drama. The play imagines the life of

John Lennon if The Beatles had failed to secure a record deal.

Nixon was a regular contributor to the ‘‘Fortean Studies’’ series of books produced by Fortean

Times magazine, offering a series of essentially sceptical papers exploring UFOlogy from the

perspective of social science. In this regard Nixon’s perspective in notably sympathetic, his paper in

‘‘Fortean Studies Volume 6’’ being called “They’re Not all Lunatics on the Fringe” examined the

meaning and fulfilment experienced by members of UFO cults. His book ‘‘UFOs’’ contained a chapter

called “Astounding Tales,’’ citing four cases, including 1976 Tehran UFO incident as a challenge to

all UFO scepticism. ^[1] ^[2]

Nixon’s comedy and fiction writing has included material for most the UK’s leading adult humour

well as journalism and two novels under the name of Stanley Manly. The first of these, Raiders of

the Low Forehead (1999) formed part of the launch offer of Attack!! Books, the Spank the

Monkey website noting: “It's less of a novel than a series of sketches with the slightest of narrative

threads holding them together: all short punchy chapters, full of crap puns, relentless internal

rhymes and blatantly obvious storytelling. (After the book's 14th sex scene, Vince and Sharon discuss

the meaning of the word "gratuitous".)”^[3] The subsequent Workington Dynamo (2008) follows a more

formal novel structure, the 3AM Literary Review noting: “a hetero love story for a grrl as well

as the soccer club, and his wimmin are a violent counter blast to the rich, thin tory-sucking

anti-feminists that currently seem to think that fat poor people shouldn’t be allowed to live.

Young Dougie Grimton is after his cousin Kerry and the result is a sweet but tangy element

amidst the picaresque madness.”^[4]

In 1999 Nixon led the developments for the UK’s first full-time higher education course in

Professional Writing, a programme he continues to lead. ^[5]

External links