The Truth about William Shakespeare

'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 the authors of these books were so often eminent Shakespeareans who ought to have known better? In this sharp and entertaining study, David Ellis shows how skilfully the biographers have attempted to make bricks without straw. He also provides a succinct account of all that can be truly known about Shakespeare as well as an enquiry into what kind of animal biography really is and how it should be written. David Ellis is emeritus professor of English Literature at the University of Kent at Canterbury. His most recent publications include Shakespeare's Practical Jokes: An introduction to the comic in his work (2007); Death and the author: How D. H. Lawrence died and was remembered (2008) and Byron in Geneva: That Summer of 1816 (2011).