SHOCK! HORROR! Shakespeare really did write the works ascribed to him. But how could a relatively poor, ignorant provincial lad have written such masterpieces? How did he acquire the knowledge implicit in his plays - the details of historical events, tales of foreign countries? How did he spend his time in the so-called "lost years"? This book attempts to provide in fictional form answers to these questions and introduces the reader to some of the extraordinary characters the budding playwright would have encountered, particularly Thomas James, who in later years developed a reputation as the "cleverest man in England" after his appointment as the first librarian to the Bodleian Library in Oxford.