I always knew Nick Earls had a special heart.

Turns out, while he’s been pumping out books, his heart’s been relying on a medical miracle to keep on beating.

Nick’s just revealed he’s had a pacemaker for 40 years. Yesterday he went in for an operation and is now hopefully in recovery, binging on Netflix and ice-cream.

He’s only 57, but Nick got his 8th pacemaker in March of this year.

This time though, his ticker needed a bonus tune up. He’s given an update on what he describes as a serious speedhump.
https://nickearls.wordpress.com/2021/07/06/why-my-new-book-has-to-fend-for-itself/?fbclid=IwAR1-nqQPU0YiECsrTbMyOqilIvBarH065xNrAC1hykMRyqlf6ecO1s3P7Hk

“My old pacemaker leads were pretty much shot, so they were abandoned and a new pair went in – and obstructed my superior vena cava.,” Earls has told his online followers.
“Since that’s the main vessel returning blood to the heart from the head, arms and upper body, that’s a reasonably big deal.
“Most SVCs have room for at least four leads. Mine doesn’t. It turns out it’s scarred and significantly constricted just before it enters my heart.”

Part of the reason Nick’s sharing this publicly is because he’s got a new book out in August called Empires. He won’t be doing the usual book tour because this heart operation is “not a small job,” according to the much-adored Brisbane author who’s now in hospital.

“I’ll be in there a while, then doing outpatient rehab for a while. So, Empires will come out on 3 August and I’ll be nowhere to be seen. It will have to do what no book should: cope in the wild alone for its first month. Books vanish that way. I hope mine doesn’t.”

It won’t. Nick’s imagination is embedded in the hearts of too many people.

Nick is one of those super smart humans who’s forever curious. He’s funny and bloody great company on the page and face-to-face. Born in Northern Ireland during The Troubles, he was only nine when his family moved to Australia.

I remember he told me how confused he was to not be checked for bombs when he first visited the supermarket here. He’d become so accustomed to sectarian conflict in his hometown.

Nick was still in primary school with a thick Irish accent when he arrived in this strange country on the other side of the world. He hilariously remembers his dad introducing him to a confusing sport called cricket.

Howzat? @nickearls had a very strange introduction to cricket @cricketcomau @MervHughes332 @abcbrisbane #greyballs pic.twitter.com/7LjfUCSEsB

— Rebecca Levingston (@reblev) May 1, 2019

Nick eventually became a doctor but, in one of life’s great plot twists, he chose to be an author.

Zig Zag Street, Bachelor Kisses, Perfect Skin, World of Chickens flew from Nick’s heart and mind onto the page and his words have delighted readers for almost as many decades as he’s had a pacemaker.

I remember when I moved to Brisbane and saw the real Zig Zag street sign, it made my heart beat a little faster. It genuinely gave me a thrill. It still does when I drive by.

Long before Fifty Shades of Grey, Nick wrote 48 Shades of Brown which was turned into a film. Don’t let me mislead you, erotic fiction is not Nick’s domain although he was no doubt amused by the obvious title comparisons that might have been made.

Author Nick Earls and columnist and radio host Rebecca Levingston (Pic: Supplied)

He’s always been keen for a chat on radio whenever I’ve given him a call. I’m grateful he takes the time to talk. In fact, a conversation with Nick deserves some credit for my career on the wireless.

The first time I dived into prime-time radio, Nick Earls was by my side. I’m not sure whose idea it was, but somehow Nick and I ended up sitting opposite each other with microphones on and neither of us really knowing what we were doing. Here’s what I can recall…

Spencer Howson, then host of Breakfast on ABC Radio Brisbane, was having a fortnight off and since I was the station reporter, I was given the chance to fill in behind the microphone.

I honestly don’t know how the next part of the story happened, but the end result was a special guest co-host every day for two weeks alongside me.

Talk about daunting. Terri Irwin, Wayne Goss, Glenn Lazarus, Sallyanne Atkinson, John Birmingham and Alistair Lynch among others agreed to come on for one day only. It was an audacious leap into the pre-dawn airwaves.

Nick Earls was the first to agree and we did the show with some serious nerves and a lot of laughs. He set the tone for an incredibly memorable fortnight.

My chest was pounding the whole time. Little did I know what was happening with my co-host’s heart.