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Book description

In 1612 Shakespeare gave evidence at the Court of Requests in Westminster it is the only occasion his spoken words are recorded. The case seems routine a dispute over an unpaid marriage-dowry but it opens up an unexpected window into the dramatist s famously obscure life-story. Charles Nicholl applies a powerful biographical magnifying glass to this fascinating episode in Shakespeare s life. Marshalling evidence from a wide variety of sources, including previously unknown documentary material on the Mountjoys, he conjures up a detailed and compelling description of the circumstances in which Shakespeare lived and worked, and in which he wrote such plays as Othello , Measure for Measure and King Lear . Charles Nicholl is a historian, biographer and travel writer. His books include The Reckoning (winner of the James Tait Black prize for biography and the Crime Writers Association Gold Dagger award for non-fiction), A Cup of News: the life of Thomas Nashe, Shakespeare and his contemporaries (Natural Portrait Gallery insights series) and Somebody Else: Arthur Rimbaud in Africa (winner of the Hawthornden Prize). His most recent book was the acclaimed biography, Leonardo da Vinci: The Flights of the Mind , which has been published in 17 languages. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and has lectured in Britain, Italy and the United States.