Shakespeare’s life, despite the scrutiny of generations of biographers and scholars, is still a thicket of myths and traditions, some preposterous, some conflicting, arranged around the few scant facts known about the Bard – from his birth in Stratford to the bequest of his second best bed to his wife when he died.

Following his international bestsellers ‘A Short History of Nearly Everything’ and ‘The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid’, Bill Bryson has written a short biography of William Shakespeare for the Eminent Lives series – which seeks to pair great subjects with writers known for their strong sensibilities and sharp, lively points of view.

Reviews

Praise for ‘A Short History of Nearly Everything’ (HB):

‘A modern classic.’ The New York Times

‘It represents a wonderful education, and all schools would be better places if it were the core science reader on the curriculum.’ Times Literary Supplement

Praise for ‘The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid’:

'Outlandishly and improbably entertaining…inevitably [I] would
be reduced to body-racking, tear-inducing, de-couching laughter.' New York Times

'Always witty and sometimes hilarious…wonderfully funny and
touching.' Literary Review