Shakespeare

Bill Bryson

A really interesting and intelligent book about all the life and works including all the myths, lies and half truths about William Shakespeare. Working through Shakespeare’s life chronologically we can see how little is known about him as a person and Bryson uses his witty and engaging style to pour scorn on a lot of the theories about him. It was really interesting to read about the huge amount of new words credited to Shakespeare that are still being used in the English language today. The last chapter was an entertaining debunking of all the theories that none of the his plays were written by Shakespeare. One claims that Marlowe was the real Shakespeare to which Bryson responds with “He was the right age …, had the requisite talent and would certainly have had ample leisure after 1593, assuming he wasn’t too dead to work.”

Awitty, interesting, intelligent and well researched biography, if a little short, of the works and life of the greatest playright: William Shakespeare.