The Truth about William Shakespeare

AUTHOR-APPROVED 'Very readable and often witty: David Ellis makes a convincing and entertaining case that recent biographies of William Shakespeare, though claiming to add to our knowledge of the poet's life, cannot really do so because the body of directly relevant evidence has remained more or less constant for the last hundred years.' Robert Bearman, former Head of Archives, Shakespeare Birthplace Trust 'In exposing the fabrications that biographers have resorted to in the face of the lack of knowledge of any kind to be had about Shakespeare's personality and private life, this book is sharply incisive, humorously as well as forensically so. It is also thoroughly informative about Shakespeare's life, insofar as it is known.' George Donaldson, University of Bristol The Truth about William Shakespeare Fact, Fiction and Modern Biography David Ellis 'Very readable and often witty, David Ellis draws attention to the fact that all recent biographies of William Shakespeare, though claiming to add to our knowledge of the poet's life, cannot really do so because the body of directly relevant evidence has remained more or less constant for the last hundred years.' Robert Bearman, former Head of Archives, Shakespeare Birthplace Trust 'In exposing the fabrications that biographers have resorted to in the face of the lack of knowledge of any kind to be had about Shakespeare's personality and private life, this book is sharply incisive, humorously so as well as forensically. It is also thoroughly informative about Shakespeare's life, insofar as it is known.' George Donaldson, University of Bristol /A probing account of the ways recent Shakespeare biographers have disguised their lack of information/ In the first decade of this century, biographies of Shakespeare poured from the presses in both Britain and the United States. How could this be when the last significant discovery of material with any direct relation to his life dates back to 1909? And why is it that