about nick
Nick Thorpe is an award-winning writer, speaker and coach. Nick grew up near London but has made his home in Scotland for nearly 25 years.
Starting his journalistic career as a staff writer at Scotsman Publications, he has since contributed to the Sunday Times, Daily Telegraph, Guardian, Independent and BBC Radio 4 among others, and covered stories ranging from Russian presidential elections to the coca wars of Bolivia, for which he was shortlisted for the Martha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism.
His most recent book, Urban Worrier: Adventures in the Lost Art of Letting Go (Little Brown, Jun 2011) is the story of his year-long quest to find balance and fulfilment by sampling everything from naturism to monasticism, Buddhism to ballooning. “Pitch-perfect,” wrote the Scotsman’s reviewer. “Thorpe’s epiphany is profound and affecting, and it is the counterpoint of poignancy and comedy that makes this very personal search for peace so utterly life-affirming.”
Adrift in Caledonia: Boat-hitching for the Unenlightened (Abacus 2006), charts his 2500-mile journey around Scotland on other people’s boats. It was serialised on BBC Radio 4’s Book of the Week programme in March 2006. Eight Men and a Duck, his critically-acclaimed first book, recounts his voyage to Easter Island by reed boat and was published by Abacus in 2003.
But in 2008 Nick started the biggest adventure of the lot when he became an adoptive dad, adding a new and emotive dimension to his growing reputation as a motivational speaker on meaningful risk and personal development. Working with organisations across the third, public and private sectors, he most recently headed communications for Year of the Dad, an award-winning campaign for involved fatherhood funded by the Scottish Government with the charity Fathers Network Scotland.
An experienced group & workshop facilitator and coach, Nick is particularly passionate about the potential of men to create a better world. He has trained with the Mankind Project and the Male Journey, completed a foundation course in process-oriented psychology, and since 2017 has worked as a credentialed (PCC) coach, trainer and supervisor accredited by the International Coach Federation and Association for Coaching.
He lives by the sea in Edinburgh with his family.
Contact Nick here
Book enquiries here