In Search of Shakespeare

There can be few more appropriate writers and TV presenters to go In Search of Shakespeare than Michael Wood. Having already gone In Search of England and pursued the history of the Conquistadors in his recent acclaimed series, Wood has now taken on The Bard in the book to accompany his latest TV series. This is well-trodden ground, but Wood tells the story with relish and an historian's eye for detail, dismissing Bardolatry in favour of a "tale of one man's life, lived through a time of revolution--a time when not only England, but the larger world beyond, would go through momentous changes."

From Shakespeare's early days in Warwickshire to the sophisticated world of theatrical life and political skulduggery in London, Wood makes few claims to new discoveries, but offers a refreshingly global understanding of what drove Shakespeare and his creativity, from his Catholic origins to the Black Londoners that he met every day. Wood too often has to "enter the realm of diverting speculation rather than that of verifiable historical fact". Did Shakespeare have an affair with Emilia Lanier? Did he die an alcoholic? Wood colourfully poses such questions, though too many remain unanswered; he cheerfully admits that he's no Shakespeare scholar, but a popular historian who has enthusiastically placed Shakespeare back into the extraordinarily fertile world that produced him. --Jerry Brotton

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Still not found - Rated
Whilst echoing the sense of most of the other reviews, I feel I have to sound a slightly discordant note.

Yes I too have read an thoroughly enjoyed many of Michael Wood's books and TV shows. This book follows the arc of Shakespeare's life and is never deceptive when it speculates. It even resists drawing too strong an inference from the many pieces of evidence that help support some of the developed thinking.

The flaw in the book, which is simply a consequence of the lack of evidence for so much of Shakespeare's life, and left me getting to the end and thinking 'So What?'; did he love his wife deeply or not, was he a heavy drinker or not, how many pieces did he re-do or collaborate on, how Catholic was he?

The book is also solidly behind the Shakespeare wrote the plays position and makes many reasonable suggestions of why he would be exposed to Latin, Greek tragedy, the culture of Venice and so forth. It also pulls few punches on the sonnets.

I also have gained many insights into life and culture of the period, and the thesis of Shakespeare sitting at a period of time straddling the Reformation is well made, along with the telling observation that the only works in the original language from 400 years ago that we still cherish are the works of the bard (whoever he was!)

Readable and Thought-Provoking - Rated
Michael Wood is the history teacher we all wish we'd had: a gifted story-teller who really knows his stuff and who knows how to put his ideas and thoughts across with passion and style. Here he lends his talents to telling the lifestory of the country's most famous - and arguably most enigmatic - writer. Any biographer of William Shakespeare is faced with one immediate problem, namely the numerous gaps in the archival record of Shakespeare's life. Bits and pieces are known about his parents and his childhood days in Stratford; a few contemporary anecdotes exist about his time in London; a trail of business documents give clues to his where-abouts at various times during his adult life and, of course, there are the magisterial plays and sonnets. It's rare that clues to the personality of the artist are not to be found in the artist's work and Shakespeare is no exception, the teller and the tale reveal things about each other for the interested observer. But, valuable though all these clues are, the gaps are still many and dark. Every so often the trail goes cold and the biographer is left with no option but to imagine and wonder what might have happened.

The key theme of Wood's book is that Shakespeare was heavily influenced by the Catholic beliefs of his parents. Shakespeare's formative years and the bulk of his career as a dramatist took place in the England of Elizabeth I, a Protestant ruler of a country that became less tolerant of Catholicism as the years went on. Wood detects clues wihin the plays and sonnets that suggest Shakespeare never quite lost the traits instilled by his Catholic upbringing: the love of ritual and show and story-telling, the artistic telling of tales through allegory, all things frowned upon by the more rigourous adherents of the Protestant religion. It's a continual thread that runs through Wood's account of the dramatist's life, but there is much else besides to admire.

What makes this account so entertaining and thought-provoking is the way the author uses intelligent and imaginative ideas to fill in the gaps concerning the parts of Shakespeare's life that will always remain a mystery. Of course, to an extent, it is all supposition but, even though we'll never know for certain, many of Wood's interpolations from what we do know ring true. The well known episodes of the dark lady and the beautiful boy from the sonnets are given a new thought-provoking spin, and Tudor England and the world of the theatres are brought to brilliant life. It's Wood's gifts as a story-teller that really come to the fore here. He gives us the scholarly details but he wraps them up in a truly colourful and engaging account. He really does make history come alive.

My only real quibble is with the lack of footnotes. When Wood gives us a quotation we really just have to take his word for it, there's no reference to follow so we can check. To be honest it didn't bother me a great deal, but the serious scholars out there won't like it. Aside from that I have no complaints at all: it's a fabulously engaging and vivid account of a fascinating man and the times in which he lived. History as it should be! Wonderful.

In search of Shakespeare - Michael Wood - Rated
I have to own up to being a Michael Wood fan. I now have about five of Wood's histories with a sixth still unread. Each one has been a well written entertaining, informative and well put together book. My favourite is still In search of the Trojan War and now closely followed by In search of Shakespeare. Wood gives the reader a clear view of Elizabethan England with its associated politicking and religious and racial intolerances and how the theatre companies waltzed their merry way around it all. From Shakespeare's family tree to his father's fall from grace as well as tracing the stories Will used for his plays it's a thorough work and a delight to read. While the book goes into greater detail the TV doco is also worth buying.

Michael Wood is just a blur of excitement and anticipation - Rated
I didn't get chance to watch the TV programme but bought the book instead just on the point that it was written by Michael Wood. I have enjoyed his in the footsteps series and he brings historical events and figures alive with his enthusiasm and excitement over finding a piece of evidence or standing in a place where Alexander or Cortez once stood. After reading this book I have almost a first person aspect on the greatness of William Shakespear, Wood loves his history in its widest scope but also in the small very human inputs into great historical events and this book doesn't disappoint. Very enjoyable and worth reading.

A real biography of Shakespeare - Rated
I picked up this book with no great optimism: so many writers have done their 'Shakespeare book' at a certain stage in their career. But the originality of the research (in a field which is supposed to have been exhaustively investigated many times over) and the succinct and judicious way in which it is presented--as a genuinely scholarly treatment but one accessible to any reader--was clear from the first page I read. This is not one of those books about Shakespeare mirrors that unconsciously its author and his or her attitudes rather than its subject, but a scrupulous examination of evidence a surprising amount of which was missed by the legions of earlier writers. I would have welcomed more of a scholarly apparatus:this book deserves it. Indeed it is a pity that it has been published as popular rather than an academic study. One hopes that it will not be treated as an ephemeral work. I do not buy many books linked to TV series but this one is an exception.