[1] One of his best known poems of the conflict is The Assault, which "evokes the destructive havoc and the emotional turbulence of an attack in verse of unusual freedom and energy"[2][3] After the war he moved in social circles in London.

He was a protege of Edith Sitwell, Aldous Huxley became a long-term friend and correspondent, and Nichols wooed Nancy Cunard with sonnets, but married Norah Denny in 1922 at St Martin-in-the-Fields.

"[7] In 1919, the English composer Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji wrote Music to "The Rider by Night" (not extant in full).

E. J. Moeran set Blue-eyed Spring for voice and piano in 1932[11] and used poetry from the unfinished play Don Juan Tenorio the Great for his Nocturne for baritone solo, chorus and orchestra of 1935.

[12] Christian Darnton set five poems by Nichols in his 1938 work Swansong, for soprano and orchestra.