Charles Nicholl is an English author specializing in works of history, biography, literary detection, and travel. He has been active as a writer since the 1970s and has been publishing books since 1980. His subjects have included Christopher Marlowe,

Arthur Rimbaud Jean Nicolas Arthur Rimbaud (, ; 20 October 1854 – 10 November 1891) was a French poet known for his transgressive and surreal themes and for his influence on modern literature and arts, prefiguring surrealism. Born in Charleville, he start ...

Leonardo da Vinci Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (15 April 14522 May 1519) was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, Drawing, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. While his fame initially res ...

Thomas Nashe Thomas Nashe (baptised November 1567 – c. 1601; also Nash) was an Elizabethan playwright, poet, satirist and a significant pamphleteer. He is known for his novel ''The Unfortunate Traveller'', his pamphlets including ''Pierce Penniless,'' ...

and

William Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

. He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. Nicholl was educated at

King's College, Cambridge King's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Formally The King's College of Our Lady and Saint Nicholas in Cambridge, the college lies beside the River Cam and faces out onto King's Parade in the centre of the cit ...

. Awards include the Daily Telegraph young writer award in 1972, which gave him tickets to the Caribbean, as a result of which he visited Colombia. Since his early work he has shown an interest in

counterculture A counterculture is a culture whose values and norms of behavior differ substantially from those of mainstream society, sometimes diametrically opposed to mainstream cultural mores.Eric Donald Hirsch. ''The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy''. Hou ...

. In 1974 he was the winner of the '' Sunday Times'' Young Writer Award for his account of an

LSD Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), also known colloquially as acid, is a potent psychedelic drug. Effects typically include intensified thoughts, emotions, and sensory perception. At sufficiently high dosages LSD manifests primarily mental, vi ...

trip entitled 'The Ups and The Downs', and he has since written about such topics as the drug trade (for example in ''The Fruit Palace'') and the Elizabethan underworld (for example in ''The Reckoning'').'The Reckoning' concerning the life of playwright Christopher Marlowe has also recently been adapted as a BBC Radio4 drama-documentary. Besides his literary output, Nicholl has also presented documentary programmes on television. He has lectured in Britain, Italy and the United States. He also lectures on Martin Randall Travel tours.Martin Randall Travel, Expert Lecturers
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Personal life

In the 1990s he moved to Italy, living near

Lucca Lucca ( , ) is a city and ''comune'' in Tuscany, Central Italy, on the Serchio River, in a fertile plain near the Ligurian Sea. The city has a population of about 89,000, while its province has a population of 383,957. Lucca is known as one ...

with his wife and children.

Boyd Tonkin Boyd Tonkin Hon. FRSL is an English writer, journalist and literary critic. He was the literary editor of ''The Independent'' newspaper from 1996 to 2013. A long-time proponent of foreign-language literature, he is the author of ''The 100 Best Nov ...

(November 2007)
Charles Nicholl: Low life, high art
'' The Independent''

Selected works

* ''A Cup of News'' (1984) – a biography of

* ''The Fruit Palace'' (1985) * ''Borderlines'' (1988) * ''The Reckoning: The Murder of Christopher Marlowe'' (1992 winner of the

James Tait Black Prize The James Tait Black Memorial Prizes are literary prizes awarded for literature written in the English language. They, along with the Hawthornden Prize, are Britain's oldest literary awards. Based at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, Uni ...

for biography and the

CWA Gold Dagger for Non-Fiction The CWA Gold Dagger for Non-Fiction is a British literary award established in 1978 by the Crime Writers' Association, who have awarded the Gold Dagger fiction award since 1955. In 1978 and 1979 only there was also a silver award. From 1995 to 20 ...

) * ''Somebody Else: Arthur Rimbaud in Africa'' (1998 winner of the

Hawthornden Prize The Hawthornden Prize is a British literary award that was established in 1919 by Alice Warrender, who was born at Hawthornden Castle. Authors under the age of 41 are awarded on the quality of their "imaginative literature", which can be written ...

) * '' Leonardo da Vinci: Flights of the Mind'' (2004) * ''The Lodger: Shakespeare on Silver Street'' (2007); published in the USA as ''The Lodger Shakespeare His Life On Silver Street'' * "Traces Remain." (2012).

References

1950 births English historians English biographers Shakespearean scholars Alumni of King's College, Cambridge English expatriates in Italy Living people James Tait Black Memorial Prize recipients Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature {{UK-writer-stub