Bøger af Nicholas Shakespeare

A fresh portrait of the man behind James Bond, and his enduring impact, by an award-winning biographer with unprecedented access to the Fleming family papers.Ian Fleming's greatest creation, James Bond, has had an enormous and ongoing impact on our culture. What Bond represents about ideas of masculinity, the British national psyche and global politics has shifted over time, as has the interpretation of the life of his author. But Fleming himself was more mysterious and subtle than anything he wrote.Ian's childhood with his gifted brother Peter and his extraordinary mother set the pattern for his ambition to be 'the complete man', and he would strive for the means to achieve this 'completeness' all his life. Only a thriller writer for his last twelve years, his dramatic personal life and impressive career in Naval Intelligence put him at the heart of critical moments in world history, while also providing rich inspiration for his fiction.Nicholas Shakespeare is one of the most gifted biographers working today. His talent for uncovering new material that casts fresh light on his subjects is fully evident in this masterful, definitive biography.'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*A The Times, Financial Times, Economist, Spectator and BBC History Magazine Book of the Year*

A biography of Bruce Chatwin, based on private notebooks, diaries, letters and hundreds of interviews. It illuminates the many sides of Chatwin, from Sotheby's director, archaeologist, "Sunday Times" journalist and traveller to devoted husband and active gay, socialite and loner.

A fresh portrait of the man behind James Bond, and his enduring impact, by an award-winning biographer with unprecedented access to the Fleming family papers.Ian Fleming's greatest creation, James Bond, has had an enormous and ongoing impact on our culture. What Bond represents about ideas of masculinity, the British national psyche and global politics has shifted over time, as has the interpretation of the life of his author. But Fleming himself was more mysterious and subtle than anything he wrote.Ian's childhood with his gifted brother Peter and his extraordinary mother set the pattern for his ambition to be "the complete man," and he would strive for the means to achieve this "completeness'"all his life. Only a thriller writer for his last twelve years, his dramatic personal life and impressive career in Naval Intelligence put him at the heart of critical moments in world history, while also providing rich inspiration for his fiction. Exceptionally well connected, and widely travelled, from the United States and Soviet Russia to his beloved Jamaica, Ian had access to the most powerful political figures at a time of profound change.Nicholas Shakespeare is one of the most gifted biographers working today. His talent for uncovering material that casts new light on his subjects is fully evident in this masterful, definitive biography. His unprecedented access to the Fleming archive and his nose for a story make this a fresh and eye-opening picture of the man and his famous creation.

When Nicholas Shakespeare stumbled across a box of documents belonging to his late aunt, Priscilla, he was completely unaware of where this discovery would take him and what he would learn about her hidden past. The glamorous, mysterious figure he remembered from his childhood was very different from the morally ambiguous young woman who emerged from the trove of love letters, photographs, and journals, surrounded by suitors and living the dangerous existence of a British woman in a country controlled by the enemy. He had heard rumors that Priscilla had fought in the Resistance, but the truth turned out to be far more complicated.As he investigated his aunt's life, dark secrets emerged, and Nicholas discovered the answers to the questions over which he'd been puzzling: What caused the breakdown of Priscilla's marriage to a French aristocrat? Why had she been interned in a prisoner-of-war camp, and how had she escaped? And who was the "Otto" with whom she was having a relationship as Paris was liberated?Piecing together fragments of one woman's remarkable and tragic life, Priscilla is at once a stunning story of detection, a loving portrait of a flawed woman trying to survive in terrible times, and a spellbinding slice of history.

When Nicholas Shakespeare stumbled across a box of documents belonging to his glamorous, mysterious late aunt, Priscilla, he was completely unaware of where this discovery would take him and what he would learn about her hidden past. Piecing together fragments of one woman's remarkable and tragic life, Priscilla is at once a stunning story of detection, a loving portrait of a flawed woman trying to survive in terrible times, and a spellbinding slice of history.

Torn by tragedy from his early life on a remote farm in Tasmania, Alex Dove has returned years later to start over. A chance encounter with quiet, alluring Merridy Bowman?a young woman similarly haunted by a tangled and catastrophic history?results in marriage, as two damaged souls unite to build a home, family, and livelihood far removed from civilization's bustle. Soon they are drawn into the unpredictable dynamics of small-town island life?and into the destructive orbit of an unscrupulous real estate agent who maintains a secret hold over both Doves. But when a shipwreck off the shore thrusts a troubled, possibly criminal teenage castaway into their world, Alex and Merridy's tenuously forged happiness is suddenly at grave risk, as they are forced to confront deeper questions about the true meaning of fulfillment.

Alex und Merridy wissen, was es bedeutet, schwere Schicksalsschläge zu erleiden. Er verlor seine Eltern bei einem Unfall, sie trauert um ihren verschwundenen Bruder. Die beiden treffen und verlieben sich, heiraten sogar, doch ihr inniger Kinderwunsch bleibt unerfüllt. Da tritt eines Tages wie aus dem Nichts ein junger Mensch in das Leben des Paares: der schiffbrüchige Teenager Kish. Ist er die Erfüllung von Alex‘ und Merridys Wunsch nach einem heilen Familienleben oder stellt sich alles als Illusion heraus?Nicholas Shakespeare (geboren 1957 in Worcester, England) teilt sich nicht nur den Namen mit dem wohl berühmtesten Dramatiker aller Zeiten: Auch er arbeitet als Schriftsteller. Als Sohn eines Diplomaten lebte Nicholas Shakespeare viele Jahre in Asien und Südamerika und war nach seinem Literaturstudium unter anderem für die BBC als Journalist tätig. Als Autor spezialisiert sich Nicholas Shakespeare vor allem auf Biografien und historische Romane. Sein Buch „Der Obrist und die Tänzerin" wurde 2002 von John Malkovich verfilmt.

This novel explores one of the most astonishing stories in the whole history of twentieth century terrorism. The Dancer Upstairs is a story reminiscent of Graham Greene and John le Carre - tense, intricate and heartbreaking.

John le Carré trifft Dürrenmatts Physiker.Marvar, ein iranischer Atomphysiker, hat den Algorithmus für die perfekte Kernfusion gefunden. Ein Wissen, das in den richtigen Händen ein Segen, in den falschen ein Fluch ist. Dann verschwindet Marvar plötzlich, nicht ohne seinem Freund Dyer, einem Journalisten, die Formel zu vermachen. Bald darauf gerät Dyer ins Visier unterschiedlicher Gestalten. Nicolas Shakespeare hat als Sohn eines Diplomaten fast zwanzig Jahre in Asien und Latein- amerika verbracht. Er studierte Literatur und arbeitete als Journalist, bevor er zu schreiben begann. Heute lebt er im englischen Wiltshire und in Swansea/Tasmanien.

London, early May 1940: Britain is on the brink of war and Neville Chamberlain's government is about to fall. It is hard for us to imagine the Second World War without Winston Churchill taking over at the helm, but in SIX MINUTES IN MAY Nicholas Shakespeare shows how easily events could have gone in a different direction.

Nicholas Shakespeare's collected stories take us around the globe and into the intimate lives of his characters and the dilemmas and temptations they face.

In the Amazon city of Belen, in the heart of the Peruvian jungle, three old men sit on a bench. One day a woman hurries past their bench whom all have reason to remember - Elena Silves, the girl with eyes as blue as the sky who once saw a vision and has been incarcerated by the Church authorities in a convent high in the Andes ever since.

For Priscilla, pre-war Paris was an exciting carousel of suitors, soirees and heartbreak, and eventually a lavish wedding to a French aristocrat. But the arrival of the Nazi tanks signalled the end of life as a Vicomtesse, and the beginning of a precarious existence under German Occupation.

Pressured to sign the register, little does he realise what effect that signature will have upon his life. The extraordinary story that follows tells of one man's failed love, the temptations of unanticipated wealth, the secrets of damaged families and the price of being true to oneself.

Following the death of his parents in a car crash, eleven-year-old Alex Dove is torn from his life on a remote farm in Tasmania and sent to school in England. When he returns to Australia twelve years later, the timeless beauty of the land and his encounter with a young woman whose own life has been marked by tragedy, persuade him to stay.

In this fascinating history of two turbulent centuries in an apparently idyllic place, Shakespeare effortlessly weaves the history of this unique island with a kaleidoscope of stories featuring a cast of unlikely characters from Errol Flynn to the King of Iceland, a village full of Chatwins and, inevitably, a family of Shakespeares.

Thomas Wavery is the new Consul General at Abyla on the tip of North Africa. A career diplomat, Wavery was once a high flyer, but an affair with a younger woman has dashed his dreams of ambassadorship. He arrives in Abyla with his wife suing for divorce, his passport stolen by a Gibraltarian ape and precious little enthusiasm for the task ahead.

A young Englishman visits Cold War Leipzig with a group of students and falls for an East German girl who is only just beginning to wake up to the way her society is governed.