"A superbly written drama..Shakespeare's research is thorough and he has a novelist's flair for depicting the characters and motives of great and lesser men...Fascinating." -- Book of the Week * The Times * "Riveting...never less than gripping. But the real delight of its book is the convincing, and often revelatory, portraits of the main protagonists." * Evening Standard. * "Superb...Enthralling." * Daily Telegraph * "Magnificent... The book, though totally anchored in the facts, has a novelist's eye for feeling and atmosphere" * i * "Shakespeare brings both meticulous research and fictional artistry to illuminate the machinery of government under extreme stress and the abrasive conflict of large, self-confident personalities. It's a superb achievement." -- Ian McEwan

Nicholas Shakespeare was born in 1957. The son of a diplomat, much of his youth was spent in the Far East and South America. His books have been translated into twenty languages. They include The Vision of Elena Silves (winner of the Somerset Maugham Award), Snowleg, The Dancer Upstairs, Secrets of the Sea, Inheritance and Priscilla. He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. He currently lives in Oxford.