Dimensions
164 x 244 x 36mm
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. Some eight years earlier, we learn, Shakespeare was lodging in the house of a French immigrant family, the Mountjoys, in the Cripplegate area of London. And while there he was called on by his landlady to 'persuade' the family's former apprentice to marry their daughter.
Charles Nicholl applies a powerful biographical magnifying glass to this fascinating but little-known episode in Shakespeare's life.
In The Lodger, one of the celebrated literary detectives of our day has created something all too rare - a fresh and original book about Shakespeare.
