Anything for a Laugh

Eric Nicol (1919-2011) was one of Canada's most beloved humourists. He was born December 28, 1919 in Kingston, Ontario, the son of William Nicol and Amelia Mannock Nicol. His family moved to Vancouver, BC in 1921, and - with the exception of a few years in Nelson, BC - Nicol spent the rest of his childhood there. He received his B.A. from the University of British Columbia in 1941 and then completed three years service (RCAF) during World War II. After the war, Nicol returned to UBC for his M.A. in French Studies ('48) and spent one year in doctoral studies at Sorbonne. He then moved to London, England to write radio comedy series for Bernard Braden and Barbara Kelly of the BBC from 1950-51. Nicol had started to write occasional columns for the Vancouver News Herald and the Vancouver Province during the war, while studying in Paris. He returned to Vancouver in 1951 to become a regular columnist with the Province, eventually producing some six thousand newspaper columns, several stage plays, more scripts for radio and television and more than thirty books - three of them winners of the Stephen Leacock Award for humour. He was the first recipient of the BC Gas Lifetime Achievement Award for outstanding contribution to the literary arts in 1995.