Jonathan Bate is Professor of Shakespeare and Renaissance Literature at the University of Warwick and on the Board of the Royal Shakespeare Company. He is the editor of the highly acclaimed RSC Shakespeare: Complete Works (Macmillan) and the author of many books, including John Clare: A Biography (Picador). He was made CBE in the Queen's 80th birthday honours, for his services to literature and higher education.
'The best book about Shakespeare for a generation' Philip Howard, The Times 'As brilliant an account of the Bard's iconic universality as you could hope to find' Michael Billington, Guardian 'Absolutely dazzling - illuminates the whole man and the influence he has in our lives' Simon Callow, Sunday Express 'Occupies the territory of biography, literary criticism, theatrical and social history, and a journey across its landscape is one of constant delight and illumination' Sir Richard Eyre, Financial Times, Books of the Year 'The theme of this wonderfully written, diverse book is diversity itself, and the range of the essays serves only to confirm the disparate nature of Shakespeare's achievement' Peter Ackroyd, The Times 'The liveliest and most intelligent general book on Shakespeare I have read for a long time' John Gross, Sunday Telegraph, Books of the Year Ambitious, exceptionally well informed and immensely engaging . . . Bate writes with unflagging energy, intelligence, with and enthusiasm * Daily Telegraph *