Customer Reviews
Still looking? - By: B.B. Wolfe, 10 Aug 2008 
Shakespeare didn't write the plays attributed to him. The most likely candidate is Marlowe. So why this revisionist book?
Still not found - By: Mist of Time, 18 Sep 2007 
Whilst echoing the sense of most of the other reviews, I feel I have to sound a slightly discordant note.
Yes I too have read an thoroughly enjoyed many of Michael Wood's books & TV shows. This book follows the arc of Shakespeare's life & is never deceptive when it speculates. It even resists drawing too strong an inference from the many pieces of evidence that help support some of the developed thinking.
The flawin the book, which is simply a consequence of the lack of evidence for so much of Shakespeare's life, & left me getting to the end & thinking 'So What?'; did he love his wife deeply or not, was he a heavy drinker or not, how many pieces did he re-do or collaborate on, how Catholic was he?
The book is also solidly behind the Shakespeare wrote the plays position & makes many reasonable suggestions of why he would be exposed to Latin, Greek tragedy, the culture of Venice & so forth. It also pulls few punches on the sonnets.
I also have gained many insights into life & culture of the period, & the thesis of Shakespeare sitting at a period of time straddling the Reformation is well made, along with the telling observation that the only worksin the original language from 400 years ago that we still cherish are the works of the bard (whoever he was!)
Readable and Thought-Provoking - By: Gregory S. Buzwell, 05 Sep 2007 
Michael Wood is the history teacher we all wish we'd had: a gifted story-teller who really knows his stuff & who knows how to put his ideas & thoughts across with passion & style. Here he lends his talents to telling the lifestory of the country's most famous - & arguably most enigmatic - writer. Any biographer of William Shakespeare is faced with one immediate problem, namely the numerous gapsin the archival record of Shakespeare's life. Bits & pieces are known about his parents & his childhood daysin Stratford; a few contemporary anecdotes exist about his timein London; a trail of business documents give clues to his where-abouts at various times during his adult life and, of course, there are the magisterial plays & sonnets. It's rare that clues to the personality of the artist are not to be foundin the artist's work & Shakespeare is no exception, the teller & the tale reveal things about each other for the interested observer. But, valuable though all these clues are, the gaps are still many & dark. Every so often the trail goes cold & the biographer is left with no option but to imagine & wonder what might have happened.
The key theme of Wood's book is that Shakespeare was heavily influenced by the Catholic beliefs of his parents. Shakespeare's formative years & the bulk of his career as a dramatist took placein the England of Elizabeth I, a Protestant ruler of a country that became less tolerant of Catholicism as the years went on. Wood detects clues wihin the plays & sonnets that suggest Shakespeare never quite lost the traits instilled by his Catholic upbringing: the love of ritual & show & story-telling, the artistic telling of tales through allegory, all things frowned upon by the more rigourous adherents of the Protestant religion. It's a continual thread that runs through Wood's account of the dramatist's life, but there is much else besides to admire.
What makes this account so entertaining & thought-provoking is the way the author uses intelligent & imaginative ideas to fillin the gaps concerning the parts of Shakespeare's life that will always remain a mystery. Of course, to an extent, it is all supposition but, even though we'll never know for certain, many of Wood's interpolations from what we do know ring true. The well known episodes of the dark lady & the beautiful boy from the sonnets are given a new thought-provoking spin, & Tudor England & the world of the theatres are brought to brilliant life. It's Wood's gifts as a story-teller that really come to the fore here. He gives us the scholarly details but he wraps them upin a truly colourful & engaging account. He really does make history come alive.
My only real quibble is with the lack of footnotes. When Wood gives us a quotation we really just have to take his word for it, there's no reference to follow so we can check. To be honest it didn't bother me a great deal, but the serious scholars out there won't like it. Aside from that I have no complaints at all: it's a fabulously engaging & vivid account of a fascinating man & the timesin which he lived. History as it should be! Wonderful.
In search of Shakespeare - Michael Wood - By: David Lazzari, 13 Jan 2004 I have to own up to being a Michael Wood fan. I now have about five of Wood's histories with a sixth still unread. Each one has been a well written entertaining, informative & well put together book. My favourite is still In search of the Trojan War & now closely followed by In search of Shakespeare. Wood gives the reader a clear view of Elizabethan England with its associated politicking & religious & racial intolerances & how the theatre companies waltzed their merry way around it all. From Shakespeare's family tree to his father's fall from grace as well as tracing the stories Will used for his plays it's a thorough work & a delight to read. While the book goes into greater detail the TV doco is also worth buying.
Michael Wood is just a blur of excitement and anticipation - By: D. Greetham, 15 Jul 2003 I didn't get chance to watch the TV programme but bought the book instead just on the point that it was written by Michael Wood. I have enjoyed hisin the footsteps series & he brings historical events & figures alive with his enthusiasm & excitement over finding a piece of evidence or standingin a place where Alexander or Cortez once stood. After reading this book I have almost a first person aspect on the greatness of William Shakespear, Wood loves his historyin its widest scope but alsoin the small very human inputs into great historical events & this book doesn't disappoint. Very enjoyable & worth reading.
