Nigel Cliff

Nigel Cliff (born 26 December 1969) is a British historian, biographer, critic and translator. He specialises in narrative nonfiction, especially in the fields of cultural history and the history of exploration. He is a Fellow of Harris Manchester College, Oxford.

Born in Manchester, Cliff was educated on scholarships at Winchester College and Harris Manchester College, Oxford University, where he gained a first-class degree and was awarded the Beddington Prize for English Literature. He was a film and theatre critic for The Times and a contributor to The Economist. He writes for a range of publications including The New York Times. Cliff lectures widely, including at Oxford University, the Harry Ransom Center and the British Library.

Cliff's first book, The Shakespeare Riots: Revenge, Drama, and Death in Nineteenth-century America, was published in the United States by Random House in 2007. Centring on a feud between leading Shakespearean actors William Charles Macready and Edwin Forrest that led to the deadly Astor Place Riot of 1849, it dramatises the birth of the American entertainment industry and demonstrates the centrality of Shakespeare to nineteenth-century American identity.

Writing in the London Review of Books, Michael Dobson called the book 'wonderful... a brilliant debut... both enthralling and scholarly." In the Los Angeles Times, Phillip Lopate called it 'Brilliantly engrossing... exemplary... engaging, worldly, fluent... crammed with entertaining nuggets.'. The book was a Washington Post Book of the Year and was a finalist for the National Award for Arts Writing. Cliff wrote the adapted screenplay for Muse Productions.

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