Video clips from the Poland Talks…

May 27th, 2010

From the series of talks I gave last week for Macmillan Poland

Discussing the difference between performing Shakespeare in RP vs OP (Shakespeare’s accent); then performing Sonnet 116 in RP, and OP; and then reading from the opening chapter of Toast, Schwarzengger’s Hamlet



Toast on CNN – Watch it here…

April 29th, 2009

CNN segment on YouTube:

“Humourous, unpretentious and fascinating” — The Independent On Sunday

December 10th, 2008

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.

Welcome to Shakespeare on Toast – Getting a Taste for the Bard

March 27th, 2008

Hi, and welcome to the Shakespeare on Toast website.

I’ve set this site up as a base for my new book Shakespeare on Toast – Getting a Taste for the Bard, published by Icon Books in September 2008.

In times to come, there’ll be details of literary festival talks, reviews, and anything else interesting I can think of.

There’s also a Facebook group that’s been set up, for those of you that do, and a space there for a discussion forum.

Meet the AuthorIf you’d like to hear more about the book, and exactly why it’s different from all the other books on Shakespeare, click here for the video I recorded for Meet the Author, or you can click on the Amazon link over to the right under Toast Links, to pre-order the book.

Thanks for visiting…

Ben