MILLINGTON, Mil 1963(?)-

PERSONAL: Born c. 1963, in England; partner's name, Margret; children: two.

ADDRESSES: Home—Wolverhampton, England. Agent—c/o Author Mail, Random House, 1745 Broadway, New York, NY 10019. E-mail—mil@falsebit.theweekly.co.uk; mil.millington@ntlworld.com.

CAREER: Worked in information technology at a university library; writer.

WRITINGS:

Things My Girlfriend and I Have Argued About (novel; also see below), Hodder & Stoughton (London, England), 2001, Villard Books (New York, NY), 2002.

A Certain Chemistry (novel), Villard Books (New York, NY), 2003.

Things My Girlfriend and I Have Argued About (screenplay; adapted from his novel), Working Title Films (London, England), 2003.

Former columnist, Guardian Weekend. Contributor to magazines and radio shows in the United Kingdom. Founder and writer of online column "Things My Girlfriend and I Have Argued About," beginning 1997; cofounder and cowriter of online magazine theweekly. co.uk; also writer of online column "Angry Bed Positions."

SIDELIGHTS: When Mil Millington began teaching himself hypertext markup language (html) in 1997 by creating a Web site called Things My Girlfriend and I Have Argued About, he had no idea that his career would veer wildly from computer work into creative writing. Millington's Web site consists of comic vignettes based on real arguments he has had with his German-born girlfriend, Margret: differences as small as how to cut a kiwi fruit and as great as whose turn has come to defrost the refrigerator. The Web site attracted fans throughout Europe and America and eventually came to the attention of publishers, who offered Millington the opportunity to turn his life into art. Since then Millington has written two novels about the vicissitudes of modern relationships and the working world, Things My Girlfriend and I Have Argued About and A Certain Chemistry. The hard-working British author has also served as a columnist for Guardian Weekend and has worked on several Web magazines.

Millington's writing career dawned when he began chronicling his verbal battles with Margret online. The Web site still exists and attracts many hundreds of thousands of hits each year. What distinguishes Things My Girlfriend and I Have Argued About on the Web is its clear line of demarcation between pure meanness and comic satire. Millington's affection for Margret, and hers for him, is never in question. Their arguments arise amidst this affection and are viewed by both as a means to strengthen their bond. As Millington told a contributor to the Manchester Guardian: "When you reach a level of intimacy that you only ever reach with your partner or siblings you are comfortable going insane and having these stupid arguments." He added of his Web site and his novels: "People who are nice see the warmth in it. People who aren't nice . . . just see two mean people shouting at each other."

Soon after Millington signed a contract to fictionalize his Web site in a novel, portions of the site appeared in the London Daily Mail without attribution. Millington successfully sued the newspaper for printing the work without his permission, and the subsequent publicity only increased his online readership. An eager audience existed for his novel Things My Girlfriend and I Have Argued About when it was released in England in 2001. While the novel's title is the same as the Web site's, Millington's book is entirely fictitious, although clearly based on his own life. The central character, Pel, works in a small university library and spars with his German girlfriend, Ursula. As the novel progresses, Pel receives a series of job promotions that eventually reveal to him the university's dirty laundry and eventually imperil his life, while the pragmatic and argumentative Ursula prods him to find a safer home for their family. A Publishers Weekly reviewer called the novel "an entertaining and genuinely funny romp through the trials of coupledom," and a Kirkus Reviews critic deemed the book "hysterically funny . . . [with] lots of quick Brit-wit but pretty shallow."

Millington's second novel, A Certain Chemistry, shows a similarity in tone to its predecessor. Tom Cartwright, a struggling author, gets an opportunity to ghost-write the autobiography of a stunning Scottish actress named Georgina Nye. Georgina's life is singularly dull, and as Tom struggles to insert some excitement into his narrative, he enters into an affair with the actress. Unfortunately, Tom also has a devoted girlfriend named Sara who has supported his efforts to succeed as a writer. In Publishers Weekly, a reviewer hailed A Certain Chemistry as a "sharp, hilarious second novel." The reviewer also felt that in the work, Millington "fulfills much of the promise he showed in his debut." Kristine Huntley in Booklist cited the novel for its "many laugh-out-loud moments," concluding that it is "a charming and funny read."

In an interview for Random House's Bold Type Web site, Millington said of his unexpected literary success: "It's utterly stunning. To set up a web page (purely for my own amusement), be approached (spontaneously) by publishers and editors, and for all this to come of it, well . . . it's utterly stunning. I feel very lucky."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, January 1, 2003, Kathleen Hughes, review of Things My Girlfriend and I Have Argued About, p. 850; May 15, 2004, Kristine Huntley, review of A Certain Chemistry, p. 1598.

Entertainment Weekly, May 21, 2004, John Freeman, review of A Certain Chemistry, p. 85.

Guardian (Manchester, England), November 9, 2002, Jemima Hunt, review of Things My Girlfriend and I Have Argued About, p. 30; January 31, 2003, Fiachra Gibbons, "Hit Studio Snaps up Millington Rights," p. 7; June 14, 2003, Alfred Hickling and Nicola McAllister, review of Things My Girlfriend and I Have Argued About, p. 30; November 27, 2003, Hamish Mackintosh, interview with Millington, p. 25.

Kirkus Reviews, November 15, 2002, review of ThingsMy Girlfriend and I Have Argued About, p. 1649.

Library Journal, December, 2002, Bob Lunn, review of Things My Girlfriend and I Have Argued About, p. 179.

Publishers Weekly, December 2, 2002, review of Things My Girlfriend and I Have Argued About, p. 33; May 3, 2004, review of A Certain Chemistry, p. 171.

ONLINE

Bold Type Web site,http://www.randomhouse.com/boldtype/ (February, 2003), interview with Millington.

Cliterati Web site,http://www.cliterati.co.uk/ (December 16, 2004), interview with Millington.

Friday Thing Web site,http://www.thefridayproject.co.uk/ (July 2, 2004), interview with Millington. Mil Millington Web site,http://www.milmillington.com/ (January 9, 2005).*