Soul of the Age: The Life, Mind and World of William Shakespeare

‘Bate probably knows as much as any single person can know about Shakespeare … Surprising, fresh, exhilarating, brilliant’ RICHARD EYRE, Guardian

HOW DID PLAGUE TURN SHAKESPEARE FROM HACK INTO A COURTLY POET?

HOW DID BOTTOM’S DREAM REWRITE THE BIBLE?

HOW DID SHAKESPEARE’S PLAY LEAD TO THE DEATHS OF AN EARL AND A KING?

WHY WAS HE THE ONE DRAMATIST OF HIS TIME NEVER TO BE IMPRISONED?

Weaving a dazzling tapestry of Elizabethan beliefs and obsessions, private passions and political intrigues, Soul of the Age leads us on a breathtaking tour of the extraordinary, colourful and often violent world that shaped and informed Shakespeare’s thinking.

‘An excellent writer …

he achieves a resonant and complex portrait, constantly alert to new lines of enquiry and unexpected conclusions’ CHARLES NICHOLL, Sunday Telegraph

‘Pure pleasure … I defy any reader, no matter how saturated in Shakespeare, not to find something new here’ Independent on Sunday

‘It is almost impossible to write something fresh about William Shakespeare.

Yet Jonathan Bate has succeeded, with a sparkling and arresting portrait of the Bard and his world’ Economist