Simon Russell Beale is one of Britain's most recognisable and well-loved actors. He has played many roles on stage, film, television and radio - ranging from Winston Churchill to Stalin, George Smiley to King Arthur. But ever since his appearance at school as a glamorous Desdemona, complete with false eyelashes that rendered him half-blind, he has been captivated by Shakespeare.In A Piece of Work, Russell Beale tries to get under the skin of the playwright and find out wha...

King Lear has ruled for many years. As age overtakes him, he divides his kingdom amongst his children. Misjudging their loyalty, he soon finds himself stripped of all the trappings of state, wealth and power that had defined him.Arden Performance Editions are ideal for anyone engaging with a Shakespeare play in performance. With clear facing-page notes giving definitions of words, easily accessible information about key textual variants, lineation, metrical ambigui...

'The Charioteer remains compelling both as a snapshot of a particular - and particularly fascinating - cultural moment, and as a deeply romantic story of love fulfilled against the odds. It has all those qualities that make Mary Renault so memorable as a novelist: craft, subtlety, intelligence, and a terrific natural sympathy with the intricacies of honour and desire' SARAH WATERS'An explosive and courageous book' SIMON RUSSELL BEALE

Simon Russell Beale discusses playing Cassius in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar in this ebook taken from Shakespeare On Stage: Volume 2 - Twelve Leading Actors on Twelve Key Roles.In each volume of the Shakespeare On Stage series, a leading actor takes us behind the scenes of a landmark Shakespearean production, recreating in detail their memorable performance in a major role. They lead us through the choices they made in rehearsal, and how the character wor...

'Extraordinary. A fabulous read' SIMON SCHAMA'Wonderful. He writes with eloquence and wit' NICHOLAS HYTNERSimon Russell Beale is one of Britain's most recognisable and well-loved actors. He has played many roles on stage, film, television and radio - ranging from Winston Churchill to Stalin, George Smiley to King Arthur. But ever since his appearance at school as a glamorous Desdemona, complete with false eyelashes that rendered him half-bl...

Exam board: AQALevel: GCSESubject: HistoryFirst teaching: September 2016First exams: Summer 2018Target success in AQA GCSE (9-1) History with this proven formula for effective, structured revision.Key content coverage is combined with exam-style questions, revision tasks and practical tips to create a revision guide that students can rely on to review, strengthen and test their knowledge.With My Revision Notes every stude...

The remarkable and tragic story of Oscar Wilde, legendary wit and conversationalist, author of perhaps the most perfect comedy in the English language, yet seemingly doomed by his own flawed temperament to suffer at the hands of a censorious and hypocritical society…

Richard III is one of Shakespeare's enduring villains as the troubled and troubling figure at the heart of this popular succession drama. Traversing the familiar terrain of scheming plots, proposals, betrayals and kingly power, this edition is presented in an easy to read format with notes for performance and rehearsal by directors and actors. It is edited by academic and director, Abigail Rokison-Woodall and the leading Shakespearean actor, Sir Simon Russell Beal...

The Romanovs were the most successful dynasty of modern times, ruling a sixth of the world’s surface for three centuries. How did one family turn a war-ruined principality into the world’s greatest empire? And how did they lose it all?This is the intimate story of twenty tsars and tsarinas, some touched by genius, some by madness, but all inspired by holy autocracy and imperial ambition. Simon Sebag Montefiore’s gripping chronicle reveals their secret world of unli...

Crime classics featuring the gentleman detective Lord Peter Wimsey and amateur sleuth Montague Egg, plus a bonus short story and two programmes about the iconic Dorothy L. SayersOne of the four Golden Age ‘Queens of Crime’, Dorothy L. Sayers is best known as the creator of Lord Peter Wimsey. Included here are dramatisations of three of her classic Wimsey novels, with full casts including Gary Bond, Simon Russell Beale, John...

Brought to you by Penguin.The modern classic of contemporary war fiction from Women's Prize-shortlisted author of The Silence of the GirlsRecommended by Richard OsmanRegeneration is the first novel in Pat Barker's Booker Prize-winning Regeneration trilogy - a powerfully moving portrait of the deep legacy of human trauma in the First World WarCraiglockhart War Hospital, Scot...

The Decameron is one of the greatest literary works of the Middle Ages. Ten young people have fled the terrible effects of the Black Death in Florence and, in an idyllic setting, tell a series of brilliant stories, by turns humorous, bawdy, tragic and provocative. This celebration of physical and sexual vitality is Boccaccio’s answer to the sublime other-worldliness of Dante’s Divine Comedy.