Nick Hemsley

The clock is ticking...The setting is West London in 1992. Nick is a high school teacher and Elizabeth is a management consultant. The story charts their experiences over a period of three weeks; these experiences challenge their beliefs (our beliefs) and change their lives forever. 'Clock' is about honesty, weakness and atonement. It is a ghost story that contains nothing supernatural. 'Clock' explores madness, perversion, horology and art; terrible things happen, terribly sad and terribly funny. A deadly comic and intense novel; it will continue to haunt you long after the clock has wound down.
THE BOOK IS A CLOCK AND THE MECHANISM - FATAL...
You can find it on AMAZON UK and in the USA at AMAZON USA or you could go to BARNES AND NOBLE , or in Canada at AMAZON CA(It's actually available from any online bookstore, anywhere in the World).So you can buy it, and read it, and be amazed; and then tell everybody you know...
How often do you hear from an author directly? Write to me; I promise I'll write back.
I'm a writer, teacher, juggler, poet, fool. And I am really just shamelessly promoting my book. Forgive me if I have dragged you in as a friend and you can't think why...It's down to what you read...
I don't really quite know how to use 'myspace' but it's funny how many old faces I keep seeing...and how many new people I keep meeting. It's alright; in fact it's great fun.
Latest reviews (these are not reviews from professional reviewers...they all come from real people who've really read the book!):
"Nick Hemsley is a fine writer, and Clock is one of the most engaging fictions I’ve read for a good while.
Despite its length this short novel’s depth and breadth of scope is stunning. It’s beautifully written and easy to read: a great story skilfully plotted. Don’t be put off by its non-linear narrative – this adds to the filmic, sometimes dreamlike quality of the novel. Clock defies pigeon-holing into any particular genre. Indeed, its integration and transcendence of several genres (thriller, romance, novel of ideas) is somehow subversive, yet at the same time underpins the psychological truth that shines, jewel-like, throughout the story’s unfolding. The reader gets to feel the weight of each character’s baggage of hopes and fears, dreams and associations, and, with these glimpses, to care.
I’ve read Clock twice now. Nick Hemsley’s subtle, un-didactic exploration of, for example, our ideas of certainty, of self and sense of self, of fidelity, innocence, guilt, remorse and grief, ensures that I’ll read it again, and recommend others to read it. (But read it soon – remember: Clock is ticking!)"
Eleanor (Myspace)
"Nick Hemsley...I finished Clock and I'm amazed. I loved it. It was so intricate...it felt, at times, like the back of a patchwork quilt, where you can just see the chaos but you know that on the otherside is a beautifully crafted piece of work. I felt almost exhausted when I was reading it...there were so many lives being examined and turned every which way. The best line in the whole book, for me, is when Nick has been walking all night and arrives at the 'barrow'. The first line of the paragraph, 'How do we get to the places that we go?'...I just love it. I can roll it around in my head and it really resonates in my soul. It's a question that everyone can wonder about...just HOW do we get to the places that we go? I'm glad that you came along as my 100th MySpace friend, and I'm glad I read your book. Thank you."
Sparkly Unicorn (Myspace)
“ I read Clock yesterday. I couldn’t put it down. It is a really good book, Nick. Your use of stream of consciousness is seamless. The monologues of Nick and Elizabeth were particularly thought provoking. The humor throughout was crisp and witty. Sounds cliché, but Clock is a fresh modernist novel. Haunted by the present as well as the past, each character is on a journey of self-discovery, each point of view revealing contemporary truths. I truly enjoyed it. Very much my cup of tea.You are a wonderful writer.”
egret (Myspace)
"Clock is unique in many ways; its structure, its narrative and its ability to ensnare the reader, to name but a few. For me the most endearing quality of this remarkable book lies with the author's ability to blend the covert side of human dynamics in a manner that doesn't demean or ridicule the story's protagonists. In many ways, and I'm certainly not demeaning this in any way, the narrative flows like a multi-perspective myspace blog. Hemsley is able to net his audience early and even when the book has finished never really sets them free. This is an author to watch. And I'll be one of those pulling up a seat for his next novel."
David Jeffery (Amazon UK)
"I have been reading Clock. It's thoroughly engrossing and exquisitely written. There's a wonderful canter, something musical and poetic that contrasts and compliments the weight of the material. My favorite thing is for us to bring beauty to things that we are generally afraid to look at. It imparts a certain humanity. A gentleness. And that's specifically intriguing here since the material is so pro/evocative. You've handled material that can easily be manhandled into the cliché, grotesque, or perverse with a rich tone. It's marvellous…It's worth several reads though. No wasted words. Nothing out of place. Beautiful and dark. Full of light as well. As with my favorite novels, I find the characters and situations in my head for some time even when the pages are away from me."
Pnuematic Devotion (Myspace)
"Met the ghost.Just finished Clock. What a fascinating read. A jigsaw puzzle of a book that genuinely spooked me. And what an excellent ending! Very satisfying, indeed. Can't wait to learn what you're working on next..."
Jennifer McMahon (Myspace)
"This book blew me away - it is mind blowing. It's so beautifully written and cleverly put together, I don't think I've ever read anything quite like it, haunting. I read the whole thing in one night, it kind of gets hold of you, and it is very funny but also really powerful. I recommend this book to everyone, it's like Ian Banks meets Tom Sharpe meets Nick Hornby only better. So who is this Nick Hemsley anyway?"
Matt Flowers (Amazon UK)
"Clock is a thought-provoking, intense read, that, at book's conclusion, had me sitting in my chair re-charting the story. It's not that I missed anything, though it's certainly possible; it's that I seldom read an author who can draw continuity of story from diversity of character. The characters are inane at times, profound at times, and witty at times - but they're always real, which I attribute to book's core... the secrets we dare think, but rarely explore, and the secrets we dare have, but only scarcely reveal, are struggles too often juggled. And sooner or later, as Hemsley makes clear, y'all gonna drop one of the balls. More than anything else, however, I enjoyed the cadence Hemsley employed to write his story. It's fast, but then, so is life. All in all, Clock is a fine book. A fine book, indeed!
Author, Robert Edward Levin (myspace). Do check out his work...it is magnificant.
“So what did I walk away from the book with? We are all haunted by the secrets and the weaknesses that we try so hard to hide. Some of us find happiness despite them, some because of them and some devour their own souls with shame and fear.”
Mary Lodge
"...There were too many high points to list; too many perfect observations. I didn't find it at all perverse; maybe that says more about me than about Clock! The characters, despite their foibles, are caring, warm and optimistic. I love the way all the separate sub-stories gel into the same global point... It's a powerful read; it depicts the inevitable pain of relationships in an undramatic, non- cynical way. It made me feel immensely sad on completion, despite one huge laugh out- loud just before the end. I think the sadness comes from immersion into a gripping yarn of profound humanity. Whenever I read a novel that grabs me like that, I feel like I'm coming down towards the end."
Ian Hawkridge YouTube
"This man writes a brilliant book! If you haven't bought 'Clock' then get logged into Amazon and buy it. If you've bought it and haven't read it yet - what are you waiting for?? Totally 'unputdownable'. Well done Nick!."
Vicky (Myspace)
"The characters cross over so implicitly that the plot flows and ticks away just like a clock. It is tastefully obscene, compellingly dark and unexpectedly funny. ‘Clock’ questions respectability, sanity and morality, showing just what happens when our secrets start to haunt us.
Carly (Myspace)
"...there are undercurrents of insomnia, blackmail and lust. It is the story of how life can change forever from one second to the next...
...The book is a masterpiece. It is not a nice book, not a comfortable read, rather Ian Banks like, it is intense and deeply satisfying, interspersed with nasty little snippets, exposing the cruelty to be found inside us all, especially the cruelty to be found in children, where it is not so deeply hidden."
Biddy Lee (Amazon)
"There are echoes of the relentless march of one of Edgar Allen Poe's short tales or poems, The Cask of Amontillado say, or The Raven, although the crackle of the contemporary interest and detail in the prose speaks with a unique voice from a different century. Parallels from the world of movies that can be made are with the torrid freneticness of Don't Look Now and the desperate doom-laden Micky Rourke in Angelheart. The major point of difference is the many moments of levity and the keen observation of late 20th life that is sprinkled throughout Nick Hemsley's first book. The writing style is compact, and occasionally challenging, but always compelling, driving the reader onwards to their date with fate. Whilst this is not a world devoid of good and compassion it does question whether the casual sinner is able to escape punishment. Obsession, passion, infatuation and isolation all have their parts to play in this story but it is an enjoyable read. Whether or not it is a ghost story is for you to decide."
Paul Q (Amazon)
"This book is something very special it really gets into your head and becomes impossible to put down. Buy it, read it, be amazed. I think you will find it takes hold. I wouldn't have read it if I'd been told it was a 'ghost story' and it isn't - it's much more of a psychological thing, it's about what's going on in people's heads. I seriously think it's an important book. Oh, and it's very funny as well which is weird considering the subject matter."
Bradley Simmons (Amazon)

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