Actor Christopher Walken (right) with actor, director and producer Robert Redford on the set of his movie The Milagro Beanfield War based on the novel by John Nichols. Photo: Getty Images

The bard of New Mexico, John Nichols put his distant backyard before the eyes of the world’s readers.

His best-known work, 1974’s The Milagro Beanfield War, was an unlikely bestseller, being the story of a fictional Hispanic community’s defiance when big business came to town, but its good humour and deft characterisation found it an audience: it was later made into a film by Robert Redford.

The Californian-born Nichols was educated in New York and parlayed his private school experience into his early novel The Sterile Cuckoo.

After a stint in Guatemala, Nichols moved to Taos, New Mexico, in 1969, and it was home for the rest of his life.

Nichols produced more than 20 books from his base, a mix of fiction and non-fiction, most centred on his home state.

Nichols died on November 27, aged 83. 

- Agencies