New Releases by 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. 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 John Dyer returns to Oxford from Brazil with his young son, he doesn''t expect to find them both in danger. Every day is the same. He drops Leandro at his smart prep school and walks to the library to research his new book. His time living on the edge as a foreign correspondent in Rio is over. But the rainy streets of this English city turn out to be just as treacherous as those he used to walk in the favelas. Leandro''s schoolmates are the children of influential people, among them an international banker, a Russian oligarch, an American CIA operative and a British spook. As they congregate round the sports field for the weekly football matches, the network of alliances and covert interests that spreads between these power brokers soon becomes clear to Dyer. But it is a chance conversation with an Iranian nuclear scientist, Rustum Marvar, father of a friend of Leandro, that sets him onto a truly precarious path. When Marvar and his son disappear, several sinister factions seem acutely interested in Marvar''s groundbreaking research at the Physics Faculty, and what he might have told Dyer about it, given Dyer was the last person to see Marvar alive.

Was tust du, wenn du allein die Zukunft der Welt in den Händen hältst? Marvar, iranischer Atomphysiker am Oxforder Clarendon Labor, hat den Algorithmus für die perfekte Kernfusion gefunden. Ein Wissen, das in den richtigen Händen ein Segen, in den falschen ein Fluch ist. Schließlich könnte man damit sämtliche Energieprobleme der Welt lösen oder eine Waffe von größtmöglicher Vernichtungskraft bauen. Dann verschwindet Marvar plötzlich, nicht ohne zuvor seinem Freund Dyer, einem Journalisten, die Formel zu vermachen. Bald darauf gerät Dyer ins Visier unterschiedlichster Gestalten. Der britische Geheimdienst, Bankiers und Ölmanager mit Kreml-Verbindung – sie alle interessieren sich für ihn. Ein riskantes Versteckspiel beginnt.

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. The first land battle of the war was fought in the far north, in Norway. It went disastrously for the Allies and many blamed Churchill. Yet weeks later he would rise to the most powerful post in the country, overtaking Chamberlain and the favourite to succeed him, Lord Halifax. It took just six minutes for MPs to cast the votes that brought down Chamberlain. Shakespeare shows us both the dramatic action on the battlefield in Norway and the machinations and personal relationships in Westminster that led up to this crucial point. Uncovering fascinating new research and delving deep into the backgrounds of the key players, he has given us a new perspective on this critical moment in our history.

"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. The opening novella, ''Oddfellows'', tells the little-known history of the only enemy attack on Australian soil during the Great War, when, in January 1915, the outback town of Broken Hill was rocked by horrifying events. From this dramatic First World War encounter, we are taken to the faded glamour of 1960s Bombay, to a Bolivian mining town in 1908 where civic folly is running amok, and to an Argentinian farm presided over by a former air stewardess and her husband. Across ocean and continents, these are stories of connection and disconnection, misunderstanding and missed opportunities, identity and displacement."

On 1 January 1915, ramifications from the First World War, raging half a world away, were felt in Broken Hill, Australia, when in a guerrilla-style military operation, four citizens were killed and seven wounded. It was the annual picnic day in Broken Hill and a thousand citizens were dressed for fun when the only enemy attack to occur on Australian soil during World War I, took them by surprise. Nicholas Shakespeare has turned this little known piece of Australian history into a story for our time.

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.

Que feriez-vous si vous deveniez soudain millionnaire ? C''est ce qui arrive à Andy Larkham, employé sans avenir dans une maison d''édition de guides pratiques, que sa fiancée vient de quitter. Se rendant à l''enterrement d''un ancien professeur, il se trompe de chapelle et assiste, en compagnie d''une étrange vieille dame, aux funérailles d''un certain Christopher Madigan. Lequel avait stipulé, dans son testament, que seules les personnes présentes à la cérémonie hériteraient de sa fortune. Du jour au lendemain, la vie d''Andy bascule. Que se passe-t-il lorsqu''on se retrouve soudain à la tête de 17 millions de livres sterling ? Pris de scrupules face à ce coup du hasard, Andy décide d''enquêter sur son mystérieux bienfaiteur. Qui était Madigan ? Comment ce réfugié d''origine arménienne est-il devenu un nabab du minerai de fer en Australie, pour finir sa vie reclus dans son manoir londonien ? Pourquoi a-t-il déshérité sa fille ? Et de quels autres secrets Andy est-il devenu le dépositaire malgré lui ? Imprévisible et virtuose ce roman tend un miroir vertigineux à l''histoire dont nous sommes, tous, les héritiers.

Bruce Chatwin is one of the most significant British novelists and travel writers of our time. His books have become modern-day classics which defy categorisation, inspired by and reflecting his incredible journeys. Tragically, Chatwin''s compelling narrative voice was cut off just as he had found it. ''Bruce had just begun'' said his friend, Salman Rushdie, ''we saw only the first act''. But Chatwin left behind a wealth of letters and postcards that he wrote, from his first week at school until shortly before his death at the age of forty-eight. Whether typed on Sotheby''s notepaper or hastily scribbled, Chatwin''s correspondence reveals more about himself than he was prepared to expose in his books; his health and finances, his literary ambitions and tastes, his uneasiness about his sexual orientation; above all, his lifelong quest for where to live. Comprising material collected over two decades from hundreds of contacts across five continents, Chatwin''s letters are a valuable and illuminating record of one of the greatest and most enigmatic writers of the twentieth century.

Andy Larkham is late. He is due at the funeral of his favourite school teacher, who once told him: ''It''s hard work being anyone.'' It''s especially hard for Andy - stuck in a dead-end job, terminally short of cash and with a fiancée who is about to ditch him. When the funeral leads to unexpected consequences, Andy has to ask himself: how far will he go to change his life? From early-twentieth-century Turkey to modern day London, Nicholas Shakespeare takes us on an extraordinary journey that explores the temptations of unexpected wealth, the secrets of damaged families and the price of being true to oneself. At once a love story spanning many decades and a tragedy of betrayal and missed opportunities, it is a romance for our times.

“A story as brooding and insular as the Tasmanian town in which it is set. . . . Expertly crafted, the novel illuminates love’s craggy depths.” —Publishers Weekly Shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize Torn by tragedy from his early life on a remote farm in Tasmania, Alex Dove has returned to the rugged island off Australia’s southern coast years later to start over. A chance encounter with quiet, alluring Merridy Bowman—a young woman caring for her ailing father and 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. “Gripping . . . exhilarating . . . cathartic.”—The Times “Elegant and enjoyable.” —The Spectator “A very good novel indeed.” —The Scotsman

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. Twelve years on, he must return to Australia to deal with his inheritance. But 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. They marry, and he finds himself drawn into the eccentric, often hilarious dynamics of island life. Longing for children, the couple open their home to a disquieting guest, a teenage castaway, whose presence on the farm begins to unravel their tenuously forged happiness, while at the same time offering the prospect of a much greater fulfilment. Secrets of the Sea is Nicholas Shakespeare''s finest novel to date.

Wellington Point is a small town at the southern edge of a big empty continent. It is a small decaying town whose inhabitants struggle to make a living in a gossipy, parochial society at the mercy of the elements. Into this world steps Alex Dovey, claiming his inheritance of his parents'' ramshackle coastal farm. Alex is lifted only by the start of his relationship with Merridy, herself a wounded, incomplete figure. As Merridy''s need for children is thwarted, she transfers her energy toward the sea and those efforts are poured into an oyster farming enterprise. Amid a violent storm, Merridy and Alex rescue a young man named Kish from a stricken sailing ship. Kish is not entirely what he seems and his salvation from the storm unleashes a slow release tsunami of pent-up emotion from the fractures of Alex and Merridy''s relationship.

Peter, ein junger Engländer, kommt 1983 nach Leipzig. Dort verliebt er sich in eine junge Frau. Als die ihn aber bittet, sie ausser Landes zu schmuggeln, kneift er. Die Schuldgefühle über sein Versagen kann er zwar verdrängen, doch 19 Jahre später führt ihn der Zufall erneut nach Leipzig.

When sixteen-year-old Peter Hithersay discovers that his father is not the affable Englishman married to his mother but an East German political dissident with whom she had a brief affair in the 1960s, he travels, in search of his past, to Leipzig. There he falls in love with a beautiful young woman who is beginning to question the way her society is governed. But their romance ends quickly and badly when his scheme to smuggle her out of the country goes awry and he is forced to return to England. When the two Germanies are reunited nineteen years later, Peter goes back to look for the woman he has never stopped loving. But his only clues are the nickname he gave her, Snowleg, and the archives of the state that drove them apart. In Snowleg, Nicholas Shakespeare explores to devastating effect the unassailable dictates of love and politics.

From the renowned British author of The Dancer Upstairs comes this “meticulous, lyrical history” of the remote island and his family’s connection to it (Publishers Weekly). Hailed by the Wall Street Journal as “one of the best English novelists of our time,” Nicholas Shakespeare decided to move to Tasmania after falling in love with its exceptional beauty. Only later did he discover a cache of letters that revealed a deep and complicated family connection to the island. They were written by an ancestor as corrupt as he was colorful: Anthony Fenn Kemp (1773–1868), the so-called Father of Tasmania. Then Shakespeare discovered more unknown Tasmanian relations: A pair of spinsters who had never left their farm except once, in 1947, to buy shoes. Their journal recounted a saga beginning in Northern England in the 1890s with a dashing but profligate ancestor who ended his life in the Tasmanian bush. In this fascinating history of two turbulent centuries in an apparently idyllic place, Shakespeare weaves the history of the island with multiple narratives, a cast of unlikely characters from Errol Flynn to the King of Iceland, a village full of Chatwins, and a family of Shakespeares. “Tasmania is an enigmatic place and Shakespeare captures it with an appreciative eye.” —The Guardian

Mit "In Tasmanien" macht Nicholas Shakespeare wie vor ihm Bruce Chatwin mit seinem berühmten Patagonien-Porträt die Erkundung einer Landschaft und ihrer Geschichte zum literarischen Ereignis. Im Zentrum stehen dabei die abenteuerlichen Leben zweier ungleicher Partner: Der eine ist Anthony Fenn Kemp, der an einem stürmischen Novembermorgen des Jahres 1804 an der Ostküste Tasmaniens, das damals noch Van-Diemens-Land hieß, unter den verwunderten Blicken der Aborigines an Land watet: Kemp ist Sohn eines bekannten Wein- und Tabakhändlers, hat in London ein üppiges Erbe durchgebracht und sich kurzerhand nach Australien in die britische Strafkolonie "under Down Under" abgesetzt. Der andere, sein Schwager und Chef der gemeinsamen Firma Potter & Kemp, William Potter, sitzt derweil daheim in England. Potter ist ein vorsichtiger, penibler Buchhalter und damit das genaue Gegenteil seines durch Tasmanien vagabundierenden Kompagnons, der sich immer wieder Geld schicken lässt, zwielichtige Geschäfte tätigt und monatelang als "Vater Tasmaniens" die halbe Insel befehligt. Kemp, der sich gern als "George Washington von Van-Diemens-Land" huldigen ließ, war nicht nur einer der ersten Kolonisten des Territoriums - er ist direkter Vorfahr von Nicholas Shakespeare und in dessen Familie das wahrscheinlich schwärzeste Schaf. Indem Nicholas Shakespeare über die Abenteuer seiner Vorfahren Potter und Kemp berichtet, erzählt er zugleich die raue Geschichte einer Insel am Ende der Welt, die den Briten einst als Kerker diente und die heute ein beliebtes Reiseziel ist.

"Unimprovable (and unstoppably readable)" --Pico Iyer, "Time "Moving and elegant...A superb portrayal of the restless and randy travel writer brings us as close to his hidden heart as we''re likely to get." "--Salon.com "Shakespeare''s engrossing bio does exactly what Chatwin''s fans have longed to do: get beneath the alluring but elusive quality of his persona and prose. [Grade]: ''A''" "--Entertainment Weekly "Immensely readable... Shakespeare portrays a man of colossal energies and intellect in perpetual conflict, whose life was a web of contradiction, controversy, and conundrum.... Shakespeare artfully synthesizes what could have been cacophonous voices into an impressively rendered and remarkably coherent portrait." "--Vogue "Quite simply, one of the most beautifully written, painstakingly researched, and cleverly constructed biographies written this decade. Shakespeare has a quite extraordinary empathy for his subject, whom he portrays with humor, warmth, and an eye for telling detail, creating a book almost as original, intelligent, and observant as those by Chatwin himself." --William Dalrymple, "Literary Review (London) Bruce Chatwin burst onto the literary landscape in 1977 with In Patagonia, which quickly became one of the most influential travel books of the twentieth century. The books that followed--The Viceroy of Ouidah, On the Black Hill, The Songlines, and Utz--confirmed his status as a major writer able to reinvent himself constantly. And the life he led successfully established him as one of the most charismatic and elusive literary figures of our time. Beautiful to behold, charming, intelligent, a writer of exquisite prose, Chatwinwas welcome in every society--from the most glamorous patrons of Sotheby''s, where he held his first job, to the remote tribes of Africa. He was a thinker of striking originality, a reader of astonishing breadth and depth, and a mesmerizing storyteller. Salman Rushdie claimed that "he had the most erudite and possibly the most brilliant mind I ever came across." And yet for all the adoration he received, when Chatwin died of AIDS in 1989, he died an enigma, a panoply of apparently conflicting identities. Married for twenty-three years to his American wife, Elizabeth, he was also an active homosexual. A socialite who loved to regale his rich and famous friends with uproariously funny stories about his travels and the people he met on them, he was at heart a single-minded loner who explored the limits of extreme solitude. Award-winning novelist Nicholas Shakespeare spent eight years traveling across five continents in Chatwin''s footsteps. He was given unrestricted access to Chatwin''s private notebooks, diaries, and letters, and has gathered evidence from Chatwin''s peers, his friends, his family, his hosts, his enemies, and his lovers. The result is this masterful biography, rendered in a graceful narrative that brilliantly leads us into Chatwin''s world--across all the vast geographic, social, and emotional expanses that he traveled--and into his psyche. Beautiful to behold, charming, intelligent, a writer of exquisite prose, Chatwin was welcome in every society--from the most glamorous patrons of Sotheby''s, where he held his first job, to the remote tribes of Africa. He was a thinker of striking originality, a reader of astonishing erudition, and a mesmerizing storyteller.Although married for twenty-three years to his American wife, Elizabeth, he was also an active homosexual, but at heart, a loner. Acclaimed novelist Nicholas Shakespeare spent eight years traveling in Chatwin''s footsteps. The result is this definitive biography rendered in a graceful narrative that brilliantly leads us into Chatwin''s world, from the glittering dinner tables among the famous to foreign deserts among nomads, and into his psyche. --u003e

Soon to be a major motion picture starring Javier Bardem and directed by John Malkovich, "The Dancer Upstairs" is a gripping suspense novel based on the search for the leader of Peru''s notorious guerrilla organization, the Shining Path. Copyright © Libri GmbH. All rights reserved.

Set in Lisbon, interwoven stories that run the bitter fate of Thomas Wavery, the high flyer, who is on his way to take up his last post as H M Consul General across the straits of Abyla.

De liefdesgeschiedenis van een guerillastrijder en een vroom katholiek meisje in de jaren ''70 in een stadje in Peru.

Un roman d''amour violent et passionné dans un Pérou en proie à la révolution; une histoire baroque où mystique et sensualité colorent les actes et les paroles.

De gebeurtenissen in een Peruviaans junglestadje worden becommentarieerd door drie oude mannen op het dorpsplein.