ABSTRACT

The question of who wrote Shakespeare’s plays has been the subject of furious debate among scholars for over 150 years. Everything known about the facts of William Shakespeare’s life seems incompatible with the extraordinary genius of his writing. How could a man who left school at the age of 13, and apparently never travelled abroad have authored the incomparable Sonnets or so intricately described Renaissance Venice? Shakespeare ‘candidates’ abound, among them Sir Francis Bacon, The Earl of Oxford, even Queen Elizabeth I herself, but none have stood up to serious scrutiny. Until now….

This remarkable, intriguing, and provocative book offers a completely plausible new candidate; Sir Henry Neville.

chapter 1|42 pages

The Shakespeare Authorship Question

chapter 2|16 pages

The real Shakespeare

chapter 3|24 pages

The Neville heritage

chapter 4|22 pages

Becoming William Shakespeare, 1582–94

chapter 5|18 pages

The road to the top, 1595–99

chapter 6|14 pages

Ambassador to France, 1599–1600

chapter 7|36 pages

The catastrophe, 1601–03

chapter 8|17 pages

Freedom and disappointment, 1603–08