A portrait of the Bard is presented in the style of a travelogue based on interviews with actors, the curator of Shakespeare's birthplace, and academics, in an account that also shares the author's recollections of his own adventures in Stratford-upon-Avon.

Sheds new light on the life of the great Elizabethan playwright and poet, reassessing Shakespeare's work within the context of sixteenth-century London and Stratford-upon-Avon, as well as his lasting legacy for world literature.

A portrait of a year in the life of the bard traces his career in 1599, which marked the building of the Globe Theater, the English invasion of Ireland, and the creation of the plays "Henry V, " "Julius Caesar, " "As You Like It, " and "Hamlet."

Challenges popular beliefs about the estranged nature of Shakespeare's marriage to Ann Hathaway, placing their relationship in a social and historical context that poses alternative theories about her rural upbringing and role in the bard's professional life.

Explores the life of Edward de Vere, the seventeenth earl of Oxford, and his travels abroad that have led some to believe he wrote the works of William Shakespeare.

"Before conjuring up an April 1564 christening in Holy Trinity Parish Church, Stratford-upon-Avon, the traditional starting point for a biography, a few words about my own ambivalence about writing Shakespeare's life. By all means, move straight to the baptismal register in Chapter One, or if it is the plays, and only the plays, that interest you, then head to Chapter Two when William Shakespeare begins his career as a dramatist. But, if the biographical...