The Flights of the Mind

Leonardo Da Vinci

Charles Nicholl's previous publications include The Reckoning: The Murder of Christopher Marlowe (winner of the James Tait Black Prize for Biography), Somebody Else: Arthur Rimbaud in Africa (Winner of the Hawthornden Prize), The Fruit Palace and The Creature in the Map.

Leonardo da Vinci is the most mysterious of all the great artists, continuing to inspire and intrigue centuries after his death. Who lies behind the legend of the 'Renaissance genius'? What is the real story behind his elusive masterpieces and tantalizing notebooks? Prize-winning author Charles Nicholl has immersed himself for five years in all the manuscripts, paintings and artefacts to produce an 'intimate portrait' of Leonardo. He uses these contemporary materials - his notebooks and sketchbooks, eye witnesses and early biographies, etc - as a way into the mental tone and physical texture of his life and has made myriad small discoveries about him and his work and his circle of associates. This compelling, lyrical biography explores Leonardo's life as never before, brilliantly illuminating the man behind the enigma.

Shakespeare on Silver Street

The Lodger

Charles Nicholl is a historian, biographer and travel writer. His books include The Reckoning (winner of the James Tait Black prize for biography and the Crime Writers&rsquo; Association &lsquo;Gold Dagger&rsquo; award for non-fiction), A Cup of News: the life of Thomas Nashe, Shakespeare and his contemporaries (Natural Portrait Gallery insights series) and Somebody Else: Arthur Rimbaud in Africa (winner of the Hawthornden Prize). His most recent book was the acclaimed biography, Leonardo da Vinci: The Flights of the Mind, which has been published in 17 languages. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and has lectured in Britain, Italy and the United States.

In 1612 Shakespeare gave evidence at the Court of Requests in Westminster &ndash; it is the only occasion his spoken words are recorded. The case seems routine &ndash; a dispute over an unpaid marriage-dowry &ndash; but it opens up an unexpected window into the dramatist&rsquo;s famously obscure life-story. Charles Nicholl applies a powerful biographical magnifying glass to this fascinating episode in Shakespeare&rsquo;s life. Marshalling evidence from a wide variety of sources, including previously unknown documentary material on the Mountjoys, he conjures up a detailed and compelling description of the circumstances in which Shakespeare lived and worked, and in which he wrote such plays as Othello, Measure for Measure and King Lear.

The Murder of Christopher Marlowe

The Reckoning

‘A masterpiece of biographical investigation’ Richard Holmes

An absorbing detective story with many twists and dark secrets. It is a passionate tale that haunts the imagination

Remarkable...for the first time reveals the true mystery of his death... Extraordinary

A book full of wit, scholarship and ingenuity... Extraordinary

A remarkable academic thriller, a brilliant recontruction

This book blows open the world of Elizabethan espionage, and presents the most comprehensive case yet for disbelieving the official inquest

This masterly construction of Marlowe’s murder kept me up all night when I first read it 20 years ago

Charles Nicholl has written two travel books, The Fruit Palace and Borderlines; a study of Elizabethan alchemy, The Chemical Theatre, and a biography of the pamphleteer Thomas Nashe, A Cup of News. He has also written a reconstruction of Sir Walter Ralegh's search for El Dorado, The Creature in the Map, and Somebody Else, which won the 1998 Hawthornden Prize. His work has appeared in Granta, Rolling Stone and the Independent.

In 1593, the brilliant and controversial young playwright Christopher Marlowe was stabbed to death in a Deptford lodging house. The circumstances were shady, the official account - a violent quarrel over the bill, or 'recknynge' - long regarded as dubious. 
 
For the first time tracing Marlowe's shadowy political and intelligence dealings, Charles Nicholl uncovers critical new evidence about that fatal day. Also providing an enthralling revelation of the extraordinary underworld of Elizabethan crime and espionage, the 'secret theatre', Nicholl penetrates four centuries of obscurity to expose a complex and chilling story of entrapment and betrayal.

The Fruit Palace

'A quite extraordinary travel book. It was a wild adventure that came off' Sunday Telegraph

Evokes that vague, sleepy enchantment which comes from dreaming of 'somewhere else'... There are echoes of Chandler, of Burroughs, of Baudelaire and even of Eliot

Mr Nicholl proves himself an addictive storyteller-A delicious addition to the library of the Briton out of his depth abroad

One of the most absorbing travel books I have read... No book I know gives a more perceptive glimpse of the life of the urban poor who are the majority of South Americans. A brilliant book, informative, well-written and fun to read

A considerable delight - funny, acute and remarkably evocative

Irresistible.. His story is so good that at times it reads like an unusually well-written thriller, then suddenly it turns into lyrical, highly-descriptive travel writing

Charles Nicholl is on a quest for 'The Great Cocaine Story'. The time is the early eighties and the place - Colombia. The Fruit Palace is a little whitewashed café that legally dispenses tropical fruit juices, has another purpose as the meeting place for a variety of black market activities and the place where Nicholl unwittingly begins his quest. 
 
Nicholl relates his story with irrepressible energy and vividness as he careens from shantytowns and waterfront barrios to steamy jungle villages and slaughterhouses. He survives fever, earthquake, and discovery by a dealer who threatens to 'check his oil' with a knife. And he emerges with a triumphant piece of travel writing which is also a comic extravaganza.

Charles Nicholl

[Nicholls is] a peerless historical sleuth. At once a biographer, an explorer and an investigator, he captures the past and its people in lightning-flashes of illumination. In Nicholl's hands, the driest document can rise from the past and shine. Let's hope for many more scintillating revelations from this magician of lost lives

History leaves traces of the people - Byron, Shakespeare, Rimbaud, Leonardo - living through it, in portraits, documents and books. In Traces Remain, Charles Nicholl transforms these glimpses through time into comic and poignant vignettes, and curious, intriguing puzzles

Charles Nicholl

Praise for Traces Remain

[Nicholls is] a peerless historical sleuth. At once a biographer, an explorer and an investigator, he captures the past and its people in lightning-flashes of illumination. In Nicholl's hands, the driest document ca ...

History leaves traces of the people - Byron, Shakespeare, Rimbaud, Leonardo - living through it, in portraits, documents and books. In Traces Remain, Charles Nicholl transforms these glimpses through time int ...

Books by Charles Nicholl

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