Leeds: 'It's a city in my DNA' says historical novelist Chris Nickson

Things take a chilling turn when Cathy’s civil servant brother arrives from London with a dark secret. He is working for the XX Committee – a special MI5 unit set up to turn German spies into double agents. But one of the agents has escaped and is heading for Leeds, sent to destroy targets key to the war effort. Suddenly Cathy and the squad are plunged into an unfamiliar world of espionage and subterfuge.

“You never know with a new series (how it’s going to go down),” Nickson says. “From the reviews, people seem to like Cathy. She’s this woman in a very masculine world. She’s very ordinary but very strong as well, naturally strong. She’s realising the things that she can do and I want to have a chance to explore that more.”

He’s already delivered his second book, set in 1944, to the publisher and has a series arc in mind. As with many of his books, it draws from the city where he was born and raised, and where he calls home again today. Historical research is key, says Nickson. He’s got shelves and shelves of books on Leeds’ history and has been fascinated since the 1990s. "When I was 18, I couldn’t wait to get out of here though,” he says. “Like most kids, when you’re that age, where you grew up seems very confining.”

Nickson had grown up in Chapel Allerton, with music and books a big part of his childhood. His father was a jazz pianist and later a writer of a number of television plays. At the age of 11, a school project tasked Nickson with writing a story in just three paragraphs and sparked the revelation that he enjoyed telling stories.

Since 1994, Nickson, the first writer-in-residence at the Abbey House Museum in Kirkstall, has made a living as a writer, initially as a music journalist in the US, where he lived for 30 years, from the age of 21. After returning to England in 2005, his first novel, The Broken Token, came out in 2010. He’s been busy writing ever since, with no shortage of ideas.

"I think I’m tying to understand Leeds and Leeds people which in a way is trying to understand myself,” Nickson reflects. “My family dates back here about 200 years...I’m fascinated by the way Leeds has grown...So my books explore the different facets of Leeds and how it changes over the decades.”

No Precious Truth by Chris Nickson is out now.