Nicholas Shakespeare is notable for his versatility. He began his career with two nonfiction books, studies of contemporary history and personality. He then turned to fiction and wrote three well-received novels in five years. During this period of fiction writing, from 1991 through 1998, he worked as well on an authorized biography of travel writer and novelist Bruce Chatwin, which appeared in 1999. Shakespeare has also been an active reviewer, cultural commentator, and literary editor for three different newspapers, and he has written for television. Shakespeare's first novel, The Vision of Elena Silves (1989), won a Somerset Maugham Award and a Betty Trask Award; his third, The Dancer Upstairs (1995), was commended by the American Library Association; and in 1993 Granta magazine named him one of the twenty Best Young British Novelists.

Nicholas William Richmond Shakespeare was born on 3 March 1957 in Worcester, England, the son of John William Richmond Shakespeare and Lalage Ann Mais...