Biography
Born to a diplomat, Nicholas Shakespeare grew up in the Far East and in South America. He was educated at the Dragon School preparatory school in Oxford, then at Winchester College and at Magdalene College, Cambridge. He 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.
Shakespeare's 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).
Nicholas 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 2002 film, 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. He has written articles for Granta, the London Review of Books and the Times Literary Supplement among other publications.
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, Shakespeare was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
In 2009, Shakespeare 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 contribution was published in the Earth collection.
In January 2012, according to journalists, Nicholas Shakespeare's 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."
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