Nicholas Shakespeare was born in 1957. The son of a diplomat, much of his youth was spent in Asia and South America. One of Granta's Best of Young British Novelists 1993, and considered by the Wall Street Journal as 'one of the best English novelists of our time', his prize-winning books have been translated into twenty-two languages. They include The Vision of Elena Silves (winner of the Somerset Maugham Award), Snowleg, The Dancer Upstairs, Inheritance, Priscilla, Six Minutes in May and acclaimed biographies of Bruce Chatwin and Ian Fleming. His most recent thriller featuring John Dyer was The Sandpit. He has been longlisted for the Booker Prize twice, was a Visiting Fellow at All Souls College, Oxford and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
A joy to read, the novel reflects John le Carré's genre-stretching influence on every page * Sunday Times on THE SANDPIT * Wonderfully well written...old school in the best possible way, with an insidious escalation of menace, and paranoia that fairly shimmers off the pages * Guardian on THE SANDPIT * A remarkable contemporary thriller – with shades of Graham Greene and Le Carré about it – but also a profound and compelling investigation of a hugely complex human predicament. Brilliantly observed, captivatingly written, grippingly narrated – a triumph -- William Boyd on THE SANDPIT A novelist who blends public and private lives persuasively in a way that is reminiscent of a master of this sort of novel, Graham Greene * Scotsman * One of the best English novelists of our time * Wall Street Journal on PRISCILLA * Shakespeare honours the best traditions of the novel * TLS * A world writer * Sunday Herald on SECRETS OF THE SEA * A beautifully considered, subtle exploration of Englishness, of betrayal, of social change and character – elegantly and engagingly wrapped in a classic spy novel * Rory Stewart on THE SANDPIT *