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. Charles Nicholl applies a powerful biographical magnifying glass to this fascinating episode in Shakespeare’s life. Marshalling evidence from a wide variety of sources, including previously unknown documentary material on the Mountjoys, he conjures up a detailed and compelling description of the circumstances in which Shakespeare lived and worked, and in which he wrote such plays as Othello, Measure for Measure and King Lear.

‘Charles Nicholl does it again … With phenomenal forensic ability [he] manages to bring uncannily to life the middle-aged playwright and the Jacobean world in which he lived and worked … Enthralling and fascinating’ William Boyd, The Times Literary Supplement, Books of the Year

‘Genuinely illuminating … Holding the magnifying glass to every item in this sordid story, Nicholl makes it read as Robert Graves once told us all good stories should, “human and exact”’ Robert Nye, Literary Review

‘Nicholl is something of an alchemist … A fluently written and handsomely illustrated book’ James Shapiro, Guardian

‘A fresh and convincing perspective on this most perplexing of cold cases … [Nicholl] builds up a startlingly complete portrait of the lost world his subject inhabited … The solidity of the vision is uncanny’ Daily Telegraph

‘For once, the maddeningly elusive William Shakespeare, gentleman, is a living presence. We hear his voice … we meet his landlady … we learn about the view from his window’ Sunday Telegraph

‘Gives an eye-opening new portrait of the Bard in London’ Independent on Sunday

‘Rich with unexpected historical delights. Fascinating … inspiring’ Financial Times Magazine

‘Paints a teeming, vivid picture of life in the great city … extraordinary’ Mail on Sunday

‘An utterly gripping account … Nicholl is a wit and stylist’ Claire Harman, Evening Standard

‘No one does the thrill of the literary paperchase better’ Spectator

‘Well-researched, well-told … A delightful, absorbing and varied book’ History Today