NW

NW may stand for:

NW postcode area

Postcode district boundaries: Bing / Google

The NW (North Western) postcode area, also known as the London NW postcode area, is a group of postcode districts covering part of northwest London, England. It is the successor of the NW sector, originally created as part of the London postal district in 1856.

Postal administration

The London postal arrangements were refined in 1917 when the sub-districts (as appended to postal addresses) were given new alpha-numeric identities for public use; the districts usually cover a wider area than their names might suggest. The district names are no longer included in the postal address because the first part of the postcode contains equivalent sorting information.

Within each NW postcode district, PO boxes are allocated to a unique postcode sector, except for two districts which use all available sectors for ordinary addresses and therefore have their separate non-geographic districts: NW1W for PO boxes in NW1 and NW26 for PO boxes in NW10.

NW (novel)

NW is a 2012 novel by British author Zadie Smith. It takes its title from the NW postcode area in North-West London, the setting of the novel. The novel is experimental and follows four different characters living in London, shifting between first and third person, stream-of-consciousness, screenplay-style dialogue and other narrative techniques in an attempt to reflect the polyphonic nature of contemporary urban life. It was nominated for the 2013 Women's Prize for Fiction.

Plot summary

Set in the northwest of London, England, four locals—Leah Hanwell, Natalie (née Keisha) Blake, Felix Cooper, and Nathan Bogle—try to make adult lives outside of Caldwell, the working-class council estate where they grew up. While Leah has not managed to venture far from her childhood location, her best friend Natalie, now a successful, self-made barrister, lives in an affluent neighborhood in a Victorian-style house. Despite their friendship and history, the two women find that they are very different from each other socioeconomically. Meanwhile, a chance encounter brings Felix and Nathan together. Nathan, a homeless addict, attacks and kills Felix, whose optimistic journey out of drug abuse and economic hardship is thus abruptly ended. In the final scene, Leah and Natalie work together to phone the police and report Nathan—a former schoolmate of theirs—as a suspect in Felix's murder.