Nigel Bagshaw graduated from Edinburgh University in 1986 with an honours degree in Russian and German. After teaching in Austria and Russia, he worked as a staff translator at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office from 1991 to 1994. Since then, he has worked as a freelance translator for, amongst others, the Court of Justice of the European Union, the Translation Centre for the Bodies of the European Union, the EU Commission, the Metropolitan Police, HM Customs and Excise, and the International Committee of the Red Cross. In that time, he also obtained the Institute of Linguists Diploma in Translation in Russian, Dutch, Danish and Italian. He translates from all 10 Slavic languages (principally Polish) as well as German, Dutch, Danish, Swedish, French, Italian and Hungarian.