Jonathan Bate, CBE, is Provost of Worcester College and Professor of English Literature at Oxford University. He is Vice-President of the British Academy, a Governor of the Royal Shakespeare Company, Honorary Fellow of St Catharine's College, Cambridge, and a 2014 judge for the Man-Booker Prize. His biography of John Clare (a poet who was a key influence on Ted Hughes) was shortlisted for seven literary prizes and won three of them, including Britain's two oldest literary awards, the James Tait Black Prize for Biography and the Hawthornden Prize.
'Many of us are mad about Shakespeare, whether as audience, actor or scholar. Jonathan Bate represents us all in his enlightening, moving report of his own personal madness . Reading it is an education' Sir Ian McKellen 'A startlingly original journey into the soul of Shakespeare by one of his greatest living interpreters' Sir Anthony Seldon 'Jonathan Bate's Mad About Shakespeare offers a series of moving lessons in the complex grammar of life. Speaking as student and teacher, son, husband, father and dramaturge, Bate produces a work of significant cultural and familial history that runs through the language and scenery of Shakespeare. Tying and untying knots, Bate asks how we might live alongside literature as a source of knowledge, comfort and hope. Shakespeare's expansive plots and wise conceits offer extra space and time in which to live and breathe in the face of emergency; a literary bloodline offering wisdom, insight and consolation' Sally Bayley 'An encouraging and welcome reminder of the importance of reading and talking about reading with young people ... I hope lots of English teachers will read it and take heart' Dr Katy Ricks, Chief Master of King Edwards School 'Ranges elegantly over a range of literary figures ... A very readable account of the thrill of discovering literature ... It is a touchingly reticent and romantic book' Literary Review