Nigel Lesmoir-Gordon

NIGEL LESMOIR-GORDON


I came into this world in the midst of the Second World War, appearing among the soaring academic towers of Cambridge – the last outpost of ‘civilisation’ before the black-soiled, windswept fens ran their endless way up to King’s Lynn and The Wash. I grew up in the austere and reactionary spirit of post-war England. People felt lucky to be alive. So many had died and there were shortages. Most of our ships had been sunk and we lived under the heavy-hanging threat of nuclear annihilation.
By the time I had made it into my teens Cambridge had blossomed and become prosperous and I grew up in a privileged world. I was 13 when I went off to board at Oundle School and Elvis Presley’s Heartbreak Hotel burst incandescently upon the world. I began writing at Oundle and published poems and short stories in the UK, the USA and in France. I toured the UK performing with my poetry & jazz group. My interest in film took me to the London School of Film Technique in 1965. When I left Cambridge to go to the school I moved into a flat in Cromwell Road, South Kensington – the infamous ‘101’. When David Gale wrote about 101 in The Independent he recalled:
“As the 60s began to generate heat, I found myself running with a fast crowd. I had moved into a flat near the Royal College of Art. I shared the flat with some close friends from Cambridge, including Syd Barrett, who was busy becoming a rock star with Pink Floyd. A few hundred yards down the street at 101 Cromwell Road, our preternaturally cool friend Nigel was running the hipster equivalent of an arty salon. Between our place and his, there passed the cream of London alternative society - poets, painters, film-makers, charlatans, activists, bores and self-styled visionaries. It was a good time for name-dropping: how could I forget the time at Nigel’s when I came across Allen Ginsberg asleep on a divan with a tiny white kitten on his bare chest? And wasn't that Mick Jagger visible through the fumes? Look, there's Nigel's postcard from William Burroughs, who looks forward to meeting him when next he visits London!”
During a weekend spent in Cambridge with old friends as part of my experimental work at film school I shot the now cult-movie classic Syd Barrett’s First Trip.
When I joined the industry as an editor I worked for Hugh Hudson, director of Chariots of Fire, on TV commercials and documentaries. The film Performance was produced from his Chelsea studios. In 1968 I was commissioned by Mick Jagger to co-write a screenplay with Christopher Gibbs (the set designer on Performance) called The Quest. Marianne Faithfull writes about this project in her biography Faithfull. Mick, Keith and Marianne were already cast and keen to make it. The script we wrote drew on Arthurian legend, Celtic mythology and romantic poetry. Donovan had been writing music for the film and was disappointed when the project stalled due to other Rolling Stones commitments. To make up for this he suggested that I produce and direct a film of him making music sailing through the islands of the Aegean Sea with a small acoustic band. The band was called Open Road and the completed 30-minute film was There is an Ocean.
I then moved to the BBC as an editor, cutting dramas and documentaries for two years. I went on to work with Pink Floyd, 10cc, Squeeze, Rainbow, Joe Cocker, Big Country, Wings, Paul Nicholas and Leo Sayer amongst others in the 70’s.
I concentrated on commercials and corporate videos throughout the 80s. I wrote and directed Regiment a documentary about the Royal Air Force’s Infantry Regiment before I made the award-winning television documentary The Colours of Infinity, presented by Sir Arthur C. Clarke with music by David Gilmour of Pink Floyd in 1993. The Colours of Infinity has been broadcast in over fifty territories. It brought the Mandelbrot set and the subject of fractals to the attention of the general public for the first time.
I also directed The Bobby Charlton Story, Reflections Satguru, Rainbow - Live Between The Eyes and the series Whatever you Want for the UK’s Channel Four.
Following the success of Colours I have since written, produced and directed the broadcast documentary Is God a Number? This science documentary looks at the mystery of consciousness and the relationship between maths, the mind and the physical, observable universe. I then made Clouds are not Spheres, a biographical broadcast documentary on the life and work of the mathematician Benoît Mandelbrot.
My first book Introducing Fractals was published by Icon Books in the USA and in the UK. This book has now sold over 16,000 copies and is available in Italian, Croat, Chinese and Korean. In 2005 I completed a modular DVD called Mandelbrot’s World of Fractals, which I directed, produced and presented for the National Science Foundation in the USA through Yale University.
The short comedy The Mysterious Michael A, starring Nicholas Jones and Joanna Bowen, was written, directed and produced by me in 2007. This film has been shown at over 20 film festivals worldwide thus far and has been very well received. I directed the acclaimed documentary Brixton Beach in 2008.
In 2009 a compilation of three of my science documentaries, featuring a fractal chill-out film with David Gilmour’s music was released on DVD. My second book, which was based on The Colours of Infinity, was published by Springer in 2010. The contributors to the film are joined in this comprehensive survey of the fractal theory and practice by some other leading experts in the field. The book features contributions from Arthur C. Clarke, Professor Benoît Mandelbrot, Professor Michael Barnsley, Gary Flake, David Pennock, Will Rood, Professor Ian Stewart and myself. The book includes an online link to the film.
Following the death of Benoît Mandelbrot I appeared on BBC Radio 4’s Last Word describing my relationship to the great mathematician. I have written a tribute to Mandelbrot for the American Mathematical Society. I also wrote his obituary for The Guardian and The Independent.
In 2010 I gave an interview to Conscious TV on fractals and the mystery of consciousness, which can be watched at this link: ?v=BZjx-Ix9DVA
Nothing and Everywhere was my first novel, which I finished in 2011. I have produced a promo film for this romantic, comic thriller. It can be viewed on YouTube: ?v=PdxSkYL5cVQ
In 2012 I presented my science documentaries in Berlin, Kassel, at UCL, Queen Mary College, Imperial College in London, Leeds University and at Waterstones in Cambridge.
I wrote the biography of an airline pilot and drummer (Tibor January) called Aerodrum in 2013. I have recently completed my second novel, Life is Just… This is not the often requested sequel to Nothing and Everywhere but is something very different indeed. This book tells the story of a perfect family’s fall from grace and its ultimate redemption. It is published by Eventispress.
I have just produced and directed a fund-raising teaser aimed at investors to garner the finance for the production of the screenplay based on my novel Nothing and Everywhere, which can viewed on Vimeo at this link:
Following the worldwide success of The Colours of Infinity on TV and DVD, we aspire to make a new 3D feature film version using existing footage of Arthur C Clarke, Benoît Mandelbrot and Stephen Hawking, new HD 3D fractal computer animations of the Mandelbrot Set, and new HD 3D footage of natural fractals. There will also be a 2D version. The teaser/trailer can be viewed on Vimeo at this link: (Password:reallyinfinity).





I began writing while still a student and subsequently published poems and short stories in the UK, the USA and in France. I toured the UK performing at poetry and poetry & jazz readings with the New Departures Group. My interest in film took me to the London Film School in 1965. During that year I made the cult-movie Syd’s First Trip - a film of Syd Barrett (the founder member of Pink Floyd) high on magic mushrooms in the Gog Magog Hills near Cambridge. In the same year I also filmed Pink Floyd sealing their first recording contract with EMI.
From film school I joined the industry as a trainee editor working on TV commercials, then moved to the BBC as an editor, cutting dramas and documentaries.
I formed my first production company, Green Back Films, with the partners of the record sleeve design company, Hipgnosis. We worked on music promotions for Donovan, Pink Floyd, 10cc, Squeeze, Rainbow, Joe Cocker, Big Country, Wings and Paul Young, producing ground-breaking and award-winning commercials and pop videos
I later joined the creative team at the Central Office of Information, writing and directing for the international TV documentary series This Week in Britain and Living Tomorrow.
I am recognised for my ability to make difficult and technical subjects accessible through my exciting and thought-provoking films. My most outstanding work includes an acclaimed series of films for the UK’s Royal Air Force and Royal Navy, Saving the Children, a television documentary on women who work for children’s charities.
I also directed The Bobby Charlton Story, Reflections Satguru, Rainbow - Live Between The Eyes and the series Whatever you Want for the UK’s Channel Four.
In the early 90s I made the television documentary The Colours of Infinity, a one-hour film presented by Sir Arthur C. Clarke with original music by Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour on the discovery of the Mandelbrot Set and the development of Fractal Geometry. This film has thus far been broadcast in over forty territories worldwide and in four languages. It is available on DVD in the UK, the USA, Australia and throughout Europe. Colours was broadcast on Channel Four in the UK.
Following the success of Colours I have since written, produced and directed the broadcast documentary Is God a Number? This science documentary looks at the mystery of consciousness and the relationship between maths, the mind and the physical, observable universe. I then made Clouds are not Spheres, a biographical broadcast documentary on the life and work of the mathematician Benoît Mandelbrot.
I have completed directing my first feature film Remember a Day, which is currently making the rounds of the festivals. In this rock pic I play the part of the interviewer and music journalist.
My first book, Introducing Fractals was published by Icon Books in the USA and in the UK. This book has now sold over 16,000 and is available in Italian, Croat, Chinese and Korean.
I recently completed a modular DVD called Mandelbrot’s World of Fractals, which I directed, produced and presented for the National Science Foundation in the USA through Yale University.
The short comedy The Mysterious Michael A, starring Nicholas Jones and Joanna Bowen, was written, directed and produced by me in 2007. This film has been shown at over 20 film festivals worldwide thus far and has been very well received. I directed the acclaimed documentary Brixton Beach in 2008.
In 2009 a compilation of three of my science documentaries, featuring a fractal chill-out film with David Gilmour’s music was released on DVD.
My second book, which was based on The Colours of Infinity, was published by Springer in 2010.
Following the death of Benoît Mandelbrot I appeared on BBC Radio 4’s Last Word describing my relationship to the great mathematician. I have written a tribute to Mandelbrot for the American Mathematical Society.
In 2012 I presented my science documentaries in Berlin, Kassel, at UCL, Queen Mary College, Imperial College in London, Leeds University and at Waterstones in Cambridge.
I have contributed to The Guardian, The Times and The Independent.
Nothing and Everywhere is my first novel. Since the publication of this comic thriller several people have expressed the view that it would make a good film and would translate very well to the big (or even the small) screen so I am now working on a screenplay version of the book. I have also started to write my second novel, Life is Just… This is not the often requested sequel to Nothing and Everywhere but is something very different indeed.
I self-published a biography called Aerodrum in 2013.
I am currently producing a fund-raising Teaser aimed at investors to garner the finance of the production of the screenplay based on my novel Nothing and Everywhere.