My Heart is a Little Wild Thing is a tenderly written book about love, the choices we make in our lives, and where those choices lead. The story is slow but cleverly written, exploring the sacrifices that its young hero, Patrick, makes during his life and, as the years roll by, the ramifications of those choices.
Patrick is the youngest of three siblings and is close to his mum. He senses that he was born ‘to look after his mother’ who is a forceful character and who ends up with dementia. Sometimes though, the weight of being the dutiful son is too much to bear and this is shown in the dramatic opening of the story as described: ‘The day after I tried to kill my mother, I tossed some clothes, a pair of hiking boots, a baseball cap and a few toiletries into my backpack, and left at dawn.’
My Heart is a Little Wild Thing explores a number of larger and complex themes which begin to unfold when Patrick meets and falls head over heels for Lewis. Patrick’s struggle to come out, the secret life he escapes to now, and later in Sydney, plus his unrequited love, eloquently fill the pages. While reading the book I was often struck by the ordinariness of Patrick’s life working for the local council in the southern highlands, having given up a career in architecture in Sydney. Overall, I enjoyed both the graceful pace and ‘theatre’ of this story that captured elements of all our lives: tragedy and hope.
Reviewed by Karen Williams
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Nigel’s debut novel, Remnants, was published in 2005. His earlier novel, Bodies of Men, was published in 2019..
He is also the author of three thematically linked, limited-print-run novellas and the author of nearly 50 short stories published in Australian literary journals. His collected stories are Joy (2000) and Homelife (1999).
Nigel has written over 120 creative non-fiction stories. In 2014 the Hume Conservatorium commissioned Nigel to write the libretto for an original song cycle, with the music composed by James Humberstone from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. This work, titled The Weight of Light, was developed by The Street Theatre in Canberra and had its world premiere in the national capital in March 2018.
In May 2020, Nigel’s first full-length play (with spoken-word songs), The Story of the Oars, underwent extensive creative development at Canberra’s Street Theatre through its First Seen program and was professionally table-read in December 2021, also through The Street.
In 2013 Nigel was a writer-in-residence at UNSW Canberra. He has also held residencies at Varuna (Blue Mountains, NSW), Bundanon (Shoalhaven River, NSW), and the Cataract Gorge Gatekeeper’s Cottage (Launceston, Tasmania). Along with novelists Robyn Cadwallader and Julie Keys, Nigel was awarded the inaugural 2020 Write North Residency, an initiative of the Byron Writers Festival.
Nigel is the founder of Hell Herons, a spoken-word/music collective, collaborating with award-winning poets Melinda Smith, Stuart Barnes, and CJ Bowerbird.
At the 2022 ACT Arts Awards, held at the Canberra Museum of Gallery, Nigel was named the ACT Artist of the Year.
A queer man, Nigel lives on unceded Gundangara Country, otherwise known as the Southern Tablelands of New South Wales, and spends considerable time in Canberra–unceded Ngunnawal Country.
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