Nigel Fountain is a British author, broadcaster, and journalist. His first book, a novel called Days Like These, was published in 1985, followed in 1988 by Underground: The London Alternative Press, 1966–74, considered the most exhaustive survey of the alternative newspapers and magazines that flourished in the UK with the emergence of the New Journalism.
Nigel Christopher Fountain was born in the Hampshire village of Netley, England. Fountain studied Politics at the University of York (1963–1966). In 1964 he founded the student newspaper Nouse.
Nigel Fountain was a commissioning obituaries editor for the Guardian for many years (1994–2009), co-editor of City Limits magazine (1982–87), an assistant editor of Time Out (1980–81), and a London correspondent for Inter Press Service (1976–80).
He also has written for many publications, including the Observer, the Sunday Times, the New Statesman, the Oldie, the London Evening Standard, the Listener, the London Magazine, the New York Soho Weekly News, Socialist Worker, History Today, New Society, and Oz magazine.
His documentary work for Radio 4, BBC2, and BBC4 has ranged from style magazines and the history of thrillers to dance halls and the 1968 events.
Fountain's books include Days Like These, Women at War, The Battle of Britain, and the Blitz. Other titles of which Fountain has been the author or editor are Lost Empires: The Phenomenon Of Theatres Past, Present And Future (2007) and the 2014 volume When The Lamps Went Out: Reporting the Great War 1914–1918.
His World War II: The People's Story (2003) received rave reviews. Publishers Weekly said: "This large and fine illustrated history of WWII through the participants' eyes is far above the conventional nostalgia piece. Personal accounts cover an amazing variety of experiences: the Blitz and the Battle of the Atlantic as seen through children's eyes; Operation Barbarossa from a German tank officer's point of view; the last fight of the Bismarck as seen from the British battleship Rodney; and an Australian soldier fighting the Japanese in the swamps of New Guinea…Even more outstanding is the quantity and quality of the photographs, managing to be comprehensive and comparatively free of overdone chestnuts."
Nigel Fountain also features in a chapter of Iain Sinclair's 2009 book Hackney, That Rose-Red Empire: A Confidential Report.
