Not for a generation, since the late Anthony Burgess's SHAKESPEARE (1970), has there been anything approaching a popular, mainstream biography of the greatest and most celebrated writer the world has known. Yet Shakespeare's life was as colourful, varied and dramatic as his works: the Warwickshire country boy who 'disappeared' for seven years before fetching up in London as an apprentice actor...whose fellow players could scarcely keep up with the plays he turned out for them...who rapidly became a favourite at the court of Elizabeth I...and returned to Stratford a prosperous 'gentleman', proud to realise his father's dream of a family coat of arms, before his death at 52. 1999 saw the completion of London's biggest new tourist attraction: an international Shakespeare Exhibition Centre alongside the rebuilt Globe Theatre and this splendidly illustrated biography of the greatest of all dramatists and poets will be a highly desirable commemorative volume.