Page, Nick

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PAGE, Nick

PERSONAL: Married; wife's name Claire; children: Lily, Madeleine, Martha.

ADDRESSES: Home—Eynsham, Oxfordshire, England. Agent—c/o Author Mail, St. Martin's Press, 175 Fifth Ave., New York, NY 10010.

CAREER: Writer, information designer, and creative consultant. Worked as director of communications for Oasis Trust.

WRITINGS:

George Herbert: A Portrait, Monarch Press (Tunbridge Wells, England), 1993.

The Tabloid Bible, John Knox Press (Louisville, KY), 1999.

The Dead Sea Files, HarperCollins Publishers (New York, NY), 1999.

Keep It Simple: And Get More out of Life, HarperCollins Publishers (New York, NY), 1999.

The Bard: The Tabloid Shakespeare, HarperCollins Publishers (New York, NY), 1999.

Hope of the Ages, Lion Publishing (Oxford, England), 1999.

Entertaining Angels, Bible Society Press, 2000.

Blue, Zondervan Press, 2001.

In Search of the World's Worst Writers, Trafalgar Square Press (London, England), 2001.

Inspiration: 2000 Years of Christian Wisdom, Abingdon Press (Nashville, TN), 2002.

The Wisdom of Christina Rossetti, Lion Publishing (Oxford, England), 2002.

The Wisdom of George Herbert, Lion Publishing (Oxford, England), 2002.

Nick Page Bible Handbook, HarperCollins Publishers (New York, NY), 2002.

Lord Minimus: The Extraordinary Life of Britain'sSmallest Man, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 2002.

SIDELIGHTS: Nick Page describes himself on his Web site as "a writer, information designer, and creative consultant." He has become known for his work on a wide range of Christian topics and for his books of humor.

Among Page's notable books is The Tabloid Bible, a retelling of Bible stories in tabloid news format. Booklist reviewer Bill Ott called the book an "inspired romp" that perfectly combines form and content. In a similar vein, Page wrote The Dead Sea Files, which purports to contain such ancient documents as Adam's diary and King Solomon's to-do list, as well as the moving company's estimated bill for the Exodus. Shifting his satirical view from the religious to the literary world, Page wrote The Tabloid Shakespeare, which contains such headlines as "Lear Today, Goneril Tomorrow—Krazy King Karves Up His Kingdom." Another playful look at literature is found in In Search of the World's Worst Writers, which includes material from such writers as the famous cheese poet of Canada, James McIntyre, as well as poems from dental supply store owner Solyman Brown.

In Lord Minimus: The Extraordinary Life of Britain's Smallest Man, Page offers a straightforward account of the life and times of Jeffrey Hudson, who became the "official dwarf" of Charles I's court after he burst out of a large pie presented to Queen Henrietta Maria in 1626. Critics enjoyed the book's sympathetic and vivid portrait of Hudson and his era. Pointing out that facts about Hudson's life are relatively scarce, reviewers noted that Page accomplishes much with the limited material at his disposal. Lord Minimus presents a "fascinating perspective" on the social history of the seventeenth century, according to Robert C. Jones in Library Journal. In Booklist, Margaret Flanagan described the book as "brimming with action and adventure," while BookPage writer Maude McDaniel hailed it as "a jewel of popular social history."

Page has also written Blue, which he describes on his Web site as a work that explores the questions confronting people at the start of the twenty-first century: the "blue values" of hope, friendship, celebration, truth, and faith. His other spiritual titles include Inspiration: 2000 Years of Christian Wisdom, The Wisdom of George Herbert, and The Wisdom of Christina Rossetti.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, October 1, 1999, Bill Ott, review of TheTabloid Bible, p. 392; July, 2002, Margaret Flanagan, review of Lord Minimus: The Extraordinary Life of Britain's Smallest Man, p. 1817.

Kirkus Reviews, May 15, 2002, review of Lord Minimus, pp. 720-721.

Library Journal, October 1, 2002, Robert C. Jones, review of Lord Minimus, p. 108.

Maclean's, October 21, 2002, review of Lord Minimus, p. 87.

New York Times Book Review, September 22, 2002, Carol Peace Robins, review of Lord Minimus, p. 25.

Publishers Weekly, July 12, 1999, review of TheTabloid Bible, p. 62.