The Author: Nicholas Shaxson
Nicholas Shaxson is a British writer, journalist and investigator. He is author of the acclaimed 2007 book Poisoned Wells: the Dirty Politics of African Oil, an Associate Fellow of Chatham House (the Royal Institute of African Affairs in London) and, following completion of Treasure Islands in 2010, a full-time writer and researcher for the Tax Justice Network, an expert-led group focused on tax and tax havens. Since 1993 he has written extensively on global business and politics for the Financial Times, Reuters, the Economist and its sister publication the Economist Intelligence Unit, International Affairs, Foreign Affairs, the American Interest, the BBC, Africa Confidential, African Energy, and a wide range of others.
He was born in Malawi in 1966 and has lived at various times in India, Brazil, England, Lesotho, Spain, Angola, South Africa, Germany and the Netherlands. He currently lives with his partner and their two children in Zürich, Switzerland.
(Update from Nicholas Shaxson: “A number of people have asked why I live in Switzerland. The reason is that my partner, a journalist, was offered – and took – a job here. When that job came up I thought ‘what better place to be, if I am going to write a book about tax havens?’ – though to be honest London would have been even better.)
