NICHOLAS SHAKESPEARE is a novelist and biographer. His books include The Vision of Elena Silves (winner of the Somerset Maugham Award), Snowleg, The Dancer Upstairs (adapted for film by John Malkovich in 2001), 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.