Nicholas Shakespeare's books have been translated into twenty languages. They include The Vision of Elena Silves, winner of the Somerset Maugham Award, and The Dancer Upstairs, which was made into a film of the same name by John Malkovich. His nonfiction includes the critically acclaimed authorized biography of Bruce Chatwin. Shakespeare is married with two sons and lives in Oxford.
"""This is a marvellous book about Ian Fleming, but it's also one of the most engaging portraits of a particular period of British history that I have read in a long time."" -- Antonia Fraser ""A book so buoyant and delicious that you feel it will be a friend for life."" -- Telegraph ""This excellent biography is as worldly and clever as one could wish."" -- Spectator ""Elegant and painstakingly researched."" -- The Observer ""A monumental record of Fleming's life. The completeness of the book is beyond doubt. Shakespeare leaves no future biographer much to discover. Fleming's place in history is assured."" -- Sunday Times (London) ""A sustained and engrossing homage to the Olympic icon of a beleaguered Britain, and a writer damned to fame. With scarcely a dull page, it's a chip off the old block . . . . steeped in exceptional research . . . . stitches up the loose ends of Fleming's story into a satisfying 21st-century biography."" -- The Independent ""A definitive biography that deepens and reshapes previous versions of Fleming's life . . . . light-footed and swift-moving despite its copious research . . . . Shakespeare's Fleming rises from these richly textured pages as a more substantial and sympathetic figure than the preening snob of myth."" -- Financial Times ""Ian Fleming: The Complete Man is packed with women, their characters and stories carefully filled in . . . . highly accomplished and readable."" -- New Statesman ""The most comprehensive picture yet of Bond's creator . . . . Definitive."" -- The Economist ""Fascinating, well researched, neatly written."" -- Literary Review ""Shakespeare has the rare ability to reinvigorate subjects that had seemed exhausted. If, like me, you thought you knew all there was to be known about Ian Fleming, prepare for a surprise . . . . Written with such brio that the pace never slackens."" -- Adam Sisman ""What a masterful and definitive study this is, enhanced by a novelist's skill in making it so eminently readable and page-turning. I learned a great deal that I did not know. It is compulsively absorbing."" -- David Stafford"