Shakespeare on Toast

My review of James Shapiro’s Contested Will, and Doug Stewart’s The Boy Who Would Be Shakespeare, in today’s Independent on Sunday:

For so long, I had not wanted to get drawn in to this unanswerable debate. No more. Now I’m out and proud. Shapiro’s is an important book, which goes a long way towards putting an end to the authorship question once and for all. Bring on the conspiracy theorists, I have met their nemesis, and its name shall be Contested Will.

So it was with eagerness that I turned to Doug Stewart’s The Boy Who Would Be Shakespeare, keen to delve deeper into one of the stories that Shapiro thrillingly covers in a dozen pages: the story of the forger William Henry Ireland.

Click here to read the review in full…

Last weekend’s Independent on Sunday chose Toast as one of their Christmas Stocking Fillers, going as far as to say:

Ben Crystal, a professional actor, wrote the zippy, anecdotal Shakespeare on Toast (Icon £11.99) to give the reader “the ability to go to any Shakespeare play and feel comfortable reading or watching it”.

He’s succeeded. It’s humourous, unpretentious and fascinating.