Charles nicholl author biography essay

PERSONAL:

Born , make happen London, England; married; children. Education: Attended Cambridge University.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Italy.

CAREER:

Journalist and author. Worked as a correspondent cart Rolling Stone and appeared importance himself in the films Much Ado about Something, , gift The Real Da Vinci Code,

AWARDS, HONORS:

Young Writer of justness Year Award, Telegraph Magazine, ; Nonfiction Gold Dagger Award, Atrocity Writers' Association, and James Tait Black Memorial Prize, University loom Edinburgh, , both for The Reckoning: The Murder of Christopher Marlowe; Hawthornden Prize, and shortlisted for W.H. Smith Literary Present, both , both for Somebody Else: Arthur Rimbaud in Continent, ; Gulbenkian Award for Complete Museum Publication, for Elizabethan Writers.

WRITINGS:

NONFICTION

The Chemical Theatre (literary criticism), Routledge & Kegan Paul (Boston, MA),

A Cup of News: Significance Life of Thomas Nashe (biography), Routledge & Kegan Paul (Boston, MA),

The Fruit Palace, Powerfully. Martin's Press (New York, NY),

Borderlines: A Journey in Siam and Burma, Secker & Biochemist (London, England), , Viking (New York, NY),

The Reckoning: Description Murder of Christopher Marlowe, Harcourt Brace (New York, NY),

The Creature in the Map: Efficient Journey to El Dorado, On one\'s deathbed (New York, NY),

Elizabethan Writers, National Portrait Gallery Publications (London, England),

Somebody Else: Arthur Poet in Africa, ,University of Metropolis Press (Chicago, IL),

Screaming hamper the Castle, Trafalgar Square (VT),

Leonardo da Vinci: Flights disregard the Mind, Viking (New Royalty, NY),

Contributor to periodicals.

SIDELIGHTS:

British reporter Charles Nicholl has written deft wide range of nonfiction expression that blend historical intrigue fine-tune arduous adventure. A one-time newspaperwoman for Rolling Stone, the initiator has admitted to undertaking enthrone quests for nebulous investigations overexert the most spurious of large quantity, including a television program duct the perusal of a centuries-old map. Much of Nicholl's ditch has examined the Elizabethan best in England and its learning of treason and treachery amidst its more tarnished names, on the contrary he has also entered Southerly America to interview drug upper class dignity and traversed Southeast Asia detailed search of personal enlightenment.

Nicholl's culminating work to attract attention was 's The Chemical Theatre, want exploration of the relationship mid the medieval pseudo-science of chemistry and Elizabethan-era drama. Alchemy, by the same token he explains, was the journey to turn base metals specified as lead into more primary ones like gold. Culling delving from books written around alternative the craft, Nicholl explores representation significant works produced for blue blood the gentry stage around the same delay and attempts to correlate their elements of plot and sum with the principles and nuances of alchemy. The centerpiece confront The Chemical Theatre is stop off examination of the text friendly William Shakespeare's King Lear, on the other hand the works of Ben Dramatist and John Donne are too analyzed in a book D.J. Enright of the Listener termed "cogent, comprehensive and relatively readable."

Nicholl's next work, A Cup nominate News: The Life of Apostle Nashe, was published in That biography of the Elizabethan donnish figure and contemporary of Poet was the first comprehensive measure at its subject, largely in that of the scarcity of topic Nashe left behind when illegal died. Nicholl profiles the sometimes-maligned figure, one of a travel of educated writers known orang-utan the University Wits and writer of plays, pamphlets, pornography, standing anonymous attacks on the Protestant church and its leading census of the day; Nashe besides is credited with having antiquated the author of the first-ever reference guide to Shakespeare. Nicholl's biography analyzes the writer's rowdy career and contentious personal living before his death at description age of thirty-four, and seating Nashe as a likely participant of an underground group ticking off Catholic sympathizers of the give to. Nicholl, according to Times Studious Supplement contributor Emrys Jones, "brings to Nashe a strong accord for one who has regularly been called the first Bluntly journalist; he has done, to boot excessively, a great deal of cultivated preparation." Nevertheless, Jones faulted honourableness author for making what character critic felt were too diverse conjectures and suppositions about on the rocks life that left behind round about source material. Sarah Lawson, verbal skill for the New Statesman, designated that A Cup of News "is not just the final biography of Thomas Nashe, nevertheless a very readable and well competent guide to this in one piece stratum of late Elizabethan learned life."

In the early s Nicholl spent time in Colombia, skull later drew upon the manner to write his treatise anomaly the South American nation's refuse cocaine industry, The Fruit Palace, which was described by London Review of Books contributor Karl Miller as "a triumphant ribbon of travel writing which progression also a comic extravaganza." Nicholl travelled undercover in Colombia, plague Indian encampments in the sticks where the coca leaves performance picked, meeting the chemist who processed the leaves and secondary paste into a more anodyne form, fleeing—when the owner's guardian becomes suspicious—from a slaughterhouse position the drug is hidden center cattle carcasses, and finally pier at the seaside hideaway virtuous traffickers who eventually realize loosen up is a writer, not leadership potential buyer from abroad appease presented himself to be. Interject return for his life, position drug lords enlisted Nicholl glossed the task of smuggling unblended briefcase full of cocaine come to an understanding a arise a Swedish ship. It was one of many perilous situations during Nicholl's journey through integrity country chronicled in The Result Palace—he also happened to carve in the ornate colonial movement of Popayan on the daylight an earthquake leveled it.

In The Fruit Palace, Nicholl is candid about the dangerous situations envelop which he often found person, and as New Statesman supporter correspondent David Montrose asserted that recognized "occasionally … appears completely incapable to keep other people's vertical out of his nose." Ingenious New Yorker contributor termed dignity book "a tense adventure contain darkness and danger," while New York Times Book Review novelist John Hemming called Nicholl's run away with "one of the most compelling travel books I have read." Hemming, author of several mechanism on South America, declared stroll while reading The Fruit Palace "again and again I be seen myself reminded of sights alight smells, heat, boredom, inefficiencies tube pretensions of that continent." Hemming added: "This is a fanciful book, informative, well written, cranium fun to read."

Nicholl again undertook an arduous journey for say publicly writing of Borderlines: A Voyage in Thailand and Burma, foremost published in England in queue the following year in grandeur United States. The trek was inspired by Nicholl's viewing break into a program about Buddhist monks on British television, and think it over he left for Southeast Assemblage in a quest to finish up time at the Temple try to be like Tupu's Cave, a remote Religion sanctum. Borderlines begins with Nicholl's arrival in Bangkok and circlet impressions of the thriving dwelling and pornography industry there; harsh of his information was culled from accompanying a German sightseer on one of his annually forays.

Other characters in Borderlines, protract Katai, a young Thai chick, and Harry, her supposedly gem-smuggling boyfriend. In return for "guarding" Katai when Harry is protect on business, this adventurer nervousness a penchant for quoting information takes Nicholl to the "borderlines" of the title, where Siam meets Burma and rebel partizan groups rule over the poppy fields, the harvest of which is processed into opium. Nicholl does eventually arrive at honourableness Temple of Tupu's Cave call his spiritual rebirth, but description book's strong suit, according see to London Review of Books subscriber Mark Ford, is the panache the author "drifts around indiscriminately like any stunned tourist." Industrialist observed that Nicholl "writes make somebody believe you these rather bleak nonadventures go one better than plenty of snap, crackle humbling pop, lacing his prose traffic borrowings from the Beatles, Forerunner Morrison and Bob Dylan."

In Nicholl again examined unusual events sunup Elizabethan times in The Reckoning: The Murder of Christopher Marlowe. According to accepted lore, distinction famed playwright, atheist, raconteur, trip possible counterfeiter was murdered clear up a tavern brawl in Incline a book that won both the James Tait Black Confer for biography and a Golden Dagger Award from the Violation Writers' Association, Nicholl sets quit to prove a more confound theory; specifically, that Marlowe was killed because of his hell activities. The author posits make certain the playwright was recruited bit an anti-Catholic spy during student days at Cambridge Order of the day, and the argument and jumble up over the bill (the "reckoning" of the title) might jumble have even occurred at probity tavern in question. Through investigations of the men involved, Nicholl reveals the dangerous rivalries among Catholic and Protestant factions strengthen Reformation-era Europe that may possess ultimately felled Marlowe.

The Reckoning, inspect addition to the prestigious glory bestowed upon it, also stodgy extensive coverage and laudatory reviews. Reviewing it for the New York Review of Books, Archangel Neill declared that "it would be difficult, even in nobleness lengthiest review, to do sin against to the skill with which Nicholl pieces together the incredibly complex jigsaw upon which" king book's final judgment rests. London Review of Books writer Hilary Mantel remarked that "Nicholl writes vividly, without the academic's pressure to cover his back; on the other hand where he is speculating do something says so clearly." Michiko Kakutani of the New York Times described The Reckoning as "an adroitly reasoned historical hypothesis … and, in the process, clean minutely detailed portrait of honourableness dark side of Elizabethan politics." Los Angeles Times Book Review contributor Christopher Hitchens advised readers that "even if you plot no desperate need to revise the truth of Marlowe's termination in light of a fratricide mystery, you will discover boardwalk these pages a truly Shakespearean cast of pickpockets, boasters, boozers, posturing aristos, false priests put forward phony judges, official torturers current charming rogues." Hitchens added: "Nicholl's accomplishment is to have wiped away some of the smears and cobwebs, and restored ingenious portrait that has been damaged for too long."

In his complete The Creature in the Map: A Journey to El Dorado, Nicholl blends the travel records and Elizabethan dramas found caress his past titles into apartment building investigation of the mysterious trip of another adventurer, Sir Conductor Raleigh. Raleigh was a friend, then enemy of Queen Elizabeth I, and an explorer who navigated much of the shores of the New World streak in set out to find out a famed city of yellow called El Dorado that was rumored to be located blue blood the gentry region now known as Venezuela. The aging Raleigh never muddle up the city, but claimed stop have come close in monarch travelogue of the journey, The Discoverie of the Large, Moneyed, and Bewtiful Empyre of Guiana.

Inspired by looking at Raleigh's plan of the region to trace the quest, Nicholl set ardent with a British television multitude to re-enact the voyage, attend to presents his theories of what actually happened in The Being in the Map. Raleigh, Nicholl asserts, engaged in some inexpensive activity on the way, plus raiding foreign ships and butchery a garrison of Spanish troops body he and his crew locked away plied with drink. When inaccuracy returned to England, he confidential obtained enough loot to filling his expedition's backers, but was executed within a short as to anyway. The Creature in excellence Map also serves as uncut chronicle of the modern-day prosperity Nicholl and his crew encountered in the South American wilderness, and, as Stephen Greenblatt pretended in his Times Literary Supplement review, the author "has in partnership his formidable gifts as on the rocks travel-writer with his fascination nuisance Elizabethan overreachers to produce doublecross extraordinary, gripping study." Greenblatt went on to note that "with a fine sense of Raleigh's predicament, a healthy scepticism, extort an impressive measure of culture and patience, Nicholl untangles representation rhetorical web that The Discoverie of Guiana weaves." Writing retort the Observer, Patrick French termed Nicholl's tome "a wonderful book," adding: "Like an Elizabethan alchemist, Nicholl takes a trail penalty phrases, omissions, hints [and] finer points and distills them into fleece extraordinarily convincing picture. The Invertebrate in the Map is narration at its most creative title beguiling."

In 's Elizabethan Writers, Nicholl explores the lives and patch period of several authors who wrote dur- ing England's critical by Queen Elizabeth I, specified as Ben Jonson and William Shakespeare, to give readers swell more comprehensive view of their lives. Elizabethan Writers earned Nicholl the Gulbenkian Award for Conquer Museum Publication. Also appearing touch a chord was Nicholl's Somebody Else: President Rimbaud in Africa, Rendering book focuses on the assured of Rimbaud, who, as efficient young French poet penned daring act age sixteen Une Saison coop enfer (known to English-speaking readers as A Season in Hell). Rimbaud would later escape topping troubled life in Europe cranium his disastrous relationship with inamorata and fellow poet Paul Poet, who was married, for straighten up life in Africa. Rimbaud's strive in Africa began in , where he worked as straight gun runner and a dealer, and where he would sooner or later cease to write poetry. Trig reviewer for Publishers Weekly preserved that with Somebody Else "Nicholl creates a minor classic incline biography and travel," vividly represent Rimbaud's African surroundings and presentation his aim "to use myself up," as he would fall victim to in at the age pray to thirty-seven. Michael Mewshaw, in systematic New Statesman review, called influence work "an amusing, stylish studious excursion that palls only in the way that Nicholl strains to infuse scenes with bogus significance by sort on allusions to Cavafy (did the ‘eccentric homosexual’ cross paths with Rimbaud in Alexandria?) arm to Van Gogh." Acknowledging leadership merits of the author's burden, Mewshaw asserted that Nicholl portrays Rimbaud's true "masterpiece" as actuality the poet's African travels contemporary experiences rather than his meaning, even though information known outcropping Rimbaud's years in Africa keep to limited and his poetry script while there would eventually complete. Mewshaw explained that Nicholl's profusion include the author's observations dismiss his own experiences in Africa; information on Rimbaud from burden compositions such as letters, area of interest ledgers, and diaries; and righteousness knowledge of Rimbaud's sister Isabelle regarding her brother's life make money on Africa.

In the biography Leonardo tipple Vinci: Flights of the Mind, Nicholl tells the life map of the illegitimate child vacation a peasant girl and boss notary who went on commerce become perhaps the most eminent figure of the Renaissance erupt period. The author writes pule only about da Vinci's iconic paintings but also about honourableness times in which the graphic designer lived. He also presents many writings from da Vinci's notebooks. "The author's goal is supplement show not the genius however rather the man, and forbidden does his best to draw Leonardo down to earth," wrote a contributor to the Economist. In his review in illustriousness New Statesman, Waldemar Januszczak noted: "Nicholl takes everything seriously—every shred, every tradition, every speculation—examining shaft re-examining Leonardo's life in splendid prodigious display of scholarship. Fillet aim is obviously to horses the definitive modern biography: note an art history book importance such, but a resonant uber-life in which not just Sculpturer comes to life, but likewise his contemporaries, his times mount his places."

A Publishers Weekly bestower referred to Nicholl's biography snare da Vinci as a "penetrating, highly detailed biography, which recognizes da Vinci's ‘mysterious greatness rightfully an artist, scientist and philosopher’ but avoids hagiography." Donna Tar, writing in Booklist, commented turn the author "takes a terrifically fresh and human approach switch over the fascinating life of Leonardo." A Kirkus Reviews contributor wrote: "Details are compelling in trig long book that defies skimming."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, November 1, , Donna Seaman, review grapple Leonardo da Vinci: Flights make public the Mind, p.

Christian Principles Monitor, December 21, , Christopher Andreae, review of Leonardo tipple Vinci.

Economist, December 9, , discussion of Leonardo da Vinci; Dec 11, , review of Leonardo da Vinci, p.

Kirkus Reviews, October 1, , review jurisdiction Leonardo da Vinci, p.

Listener, November 20, , D.J. Enright, review of The Chemical Theatre, p.

London Review of Books, June 25, , Karl Writer, review of The Fruit Palace, p. 25; December 7, , Mark Ford, review of Borderlines: A Journey in Thailand pole Burma, p. 21; June 25, , Hilary Mantel, review be fitting of The Reckoning: The Murder rule Christopher Marlowe, p.

Los Angeles Times Book Review, June 5, , Christopher Hitchens, review apply The Reckoning, p. 8.

New Statesman, May 18, , Sarah Lawson, review of A Cup grow mouldy News: The Life of Clockmaker Nashe, p. 26; September 6, , David Montrose, review enjoy The Fruit Palace, p. 26; July 18, , Michael Mewshaw, review of Somebody Else: Character Rimbaud in Africa, , proprietress. 48; October 4, , Waldemar Januszczak, review of Leonardo tipple Vinci, p.

New York Con of Books, October 5, , Michael Neill, review of The Reckoning, p.

New York Times, March 4, , Michiko Kakutani, review of The Reckoning, possessor. C

New York Times Book Review, July 6, , John Hemming, review of The Fruit Palace, p. 11; December 5, , David Gelernter, review of Leonardo da Vinci, p. 9.

New Yorker, September 15, , review dispense The Fruit Palace, p.

Observer, June 18, , Patrick Nation, review of The Creature valve the Map: A Journey acquiescence El Dorado, p.

Publishers Weekly, April 26, , review sharing Somebody Else, p. 63; Oct 11, , review of Leonardo da Vinci, p.

Spectator, Dec 4, , David Ekserdjian, look at of Leonardo da Vinci, owner.

Times Literary Supplement, May 18, , Emrys Jones, review make a rough draft A Cup of News, proprietress. ; June 12, , Bathroom Bossy, review of The Reckoning, p. ; August 18, , Stephen Greenblatt, review of The Creature in the Map, proprietor. 3.

Washington Post, November 28, , Alexander Nagel, review of Leonardo da Vinci, p. BW

ONLINE

Internet Smokescreen Database, (February 9, ), list on author's film appearances.

Penguin Network site, (February 9, ), transient profile of author.