<img src="http://www.faber.co.uk/site-media/onix-images/thumbs/14249_jpg_280x450_q85.jpg" class="left" height="250" />I just finished reading this excellent book, which explores the various arguments against Shakespeare of Stratford as author of Shakespeare's plays and then explains why he DID write them.

It's an interesting insight into amateur academia and fashionable readings of texts. And it also has fascinating detail about some of the great authors of the last century - writers like Mark Twain and Sigmund Freud.

Also fascinating is the way in which these authors - and others who claim Shakespeare didn't write the plays - twisted facts and chronology to support their claims, eschewing for this one topic their usual rigorous approach to research and interpretation. They apparently didn't see how tenuous their evidences were.

I find it incredible that this idea still has traction today; that people ignore all the knowledge we now have of how the Elizabethan and Jacobean theatre world worked, our understanding of the practices of Early Modern England, and all of the direct evidence (from playwrights and actors of the time) that supports Shakespeare of Stratford as the author of those plays and sonnets usually attributed to him.

I also learned the following things:

- Mark Twain claimed that Elizabeth I was a man.

- Mark Twain trademarked his name and sold merchandising.

- Famous stage actors who support the anti-Shakespeare crowd include Derek Jacobi and Jeremy Irons.

- In the late 18th century, Shakespeare's supporters basically deified him - and this continued into the Romantic era with poets such as Keats eulogising him with words better suited to Christian worship.

- Shakespeare left his wife Anne Hathaway only his "second best bed".

- Which mightn't be as bad as it sounds because of how succession law worked in Jacobean England.

So if you're looking for a very readable interesting non-fiction book to read this one is a great choice.