Who is Nikki D.? The nude poster child of capital-P Photography. A Lolita, perhaps, finally letting the predators off the hook. Or the teller of her own story, albeit under a new name: Christina Cross - the name she adopted when she flew across the world to start a new life in London. It isn't until her past follows her there, decades later, that Christina finally decides to tell her story - or, at least, to give a trusted penman the permission to faithfully transcribe the truth of her much-observed childhood. To capture those endless summers at the Silverbanks nudist colony in Golden Bay, New Zealand: the sunlit beaches, her first romantic encounters, the for-ever friendships that only some unknown darkness could put to the test. And then there's Roland Salt - the world-class photographer who chased the summer around the globe, carrying little more than his camera and his unmatched ability to capture innocence: Nicola Davidson, or Nicky, better known, in print, as Nikki D. Carl Nixon's latest novel sensitively but provocatively puts legitimized forms of exploitation under the microscope.
