Nicholas Shakespeare

Nicholas William Richmond Shakespeare (born 3 March 1957 in Worcester) is a British novelist and biographer. Born to a diplomat, Shakespeare grew up in the Far East and in South America. He was educated at the Dragon School preparatory school then Winchester College and Cambridge and worked as a journalist for BBC television and then on The Times as assistant arts and literary editor. From 1988 to 1991 he was literary editor of The Daily Telegraph and The Sunday Telegraph.

His time in South America is represented in two novels, The Vision of Elena Silves (1989, Somerset Maugham Award, Betty Trask Award) and The Dancer Upstairs (1995, American Library Association Award). Other less well known works from this period are The Men Who Would Be King (1984), Londoners (1986) and The High Flyer (1993). In 1999, Shakespeare published his biography of Bruce Chatwin to widespread critical acclaim. This was followed by the novel Snowleg (2004, long-listed for the Booker Prize, Dublin IMPAC Award) a 'place' book, In Tasmania (2004, winner of the Tasmania Book Prize 2006), Secrets of the Sea (2007) and "Inheritance" (2010).

Shakespeare has also produced several extended biographies for television on Evelyn Waugh, Mario Vargas Llosa, Bruce Chatwin and on the actor Dirk Bogarde (Arena 2001, BAFTA "Best Arts Documentary Award", RTS "Best Documentary Award"). The Dancer Upstairs was made into a film in 2002 for which Shakespeare wrote the screenplay and which John Malkovich directed. Shakespeare was nominated as one of Granta's Best of British Young Novelists in 1993 and has written articles for Granta, the London Review of Books and the Times Literary Supplement among others.

Shakespeare's novels place ordinary people against a background of significant events, as with The Dancer Upstairs, which deals with Abimael Guzmán, leader of Peru's Sendero Luminoso; and Snowleg, set partly during the Cold War in the German Democratic Republic.

In 1999, he was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

In 2009, he donated the short story "The Death of Marat" to Oxfam's 'Ox-Tales' project, four collections of UK stories written by 38 authors. Shakespeare's story was published in the Earth collection.

In January 2012, according to journalists, his writings were mistakenly confused for William Shakespeare's by French presidential candidate François Hollande when he said: "Je me permets de citer Shakespeare, ils ont échoué parce qu'ils n'ont pas commencé par le rêve."

Works

• The Men Who Would Be King: A Look at Royalty in Exile (Sidgwick & Jackson, 1984)
• Londoners (Sidgwick & Jackson, 1986)
• The Vision of Elena Silves (Harvill, 1989)
• The High Flyer (Harvill, 1993)
• The Dancer Upstairs (Harvill, 1995)
• Bruce Chatwin (Harvill, 1999)
• Snowleg (Harvill, 2004)
• In Tasmania (Harvill, 2004)
• Secrets of the Sea (Harvill, 2007)
• Inheritance (Harvill, 2010)

External links

• Contemporary Writers entry from the British Council
• Bold Type Magazine information from Random House
• Fantastic Fiction entry
• Nicholas Shakespeare at Random House Australia