An exploration of power in the plays of William Shakespeare that sheds light on our most urgent contemporary dilemmas.

‘Brilliant’ Sunday Times

How does a truly disastrous leader - a sociopath, a demagogue, a tyrant - come to power? How, and why, does a tyrant hold on to power? And what goes on in the hidden recesses of the tyrant’s soul?

For help in understanding our most urgent contemporary dilemmas, William Shakespeare has no peer.

‘Brilliant, timely’ Margaret Atwood, on Twitter

‘A scintillating book, uncannily illuminating about current politics, as perceptive about the victims of tyranny as it is about the tyrants themselves’ Nicholas Hytner