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