Peter Ackroyd's marvellous biography is a living attempt to reach into the heart of Shakespeare. He creates an intimate and immediate connection with his subject, so that the book reads like the work of a contemporary - meeting Shakespeare afresh on his own ground. Written with intuition and imagination unique to Peter Ackroyd, this is a book by a writer about a writer, and a fascinating and detailed depiction of the world Shakespeare inhabited. First published 2005.
Reviews
"You will not find a better book on Shakespeare . . . Ackroyd has genuinely set a new standard for accounts of Shakespeare's life." -Colin MacCabe, "Independent" "If you were to read only one book on Shakespeare, you would do well with this one." -Allan Massie, "Literary Review" "Shakespeare: The Biography is everything one would expect from a biographer at the top of his game . . . his recreation of London life is masterful. He knows the plays and understands better than academic biographers how Shakespeare went about researching and writing . . . His biography ranks with the best of them." -"Financial Times" "His biography is conventional, even cautious; grounded in common sense and wide reading, and written with the sensibility of a working novelist." -Nicholas Shakespeare, "Saturday Telegraph"