A fascinating insider account of researching, rehearsing and performing the part of King Lear for a major Royal Shakespeare Company production, Antony Sher's Year of the Mad King won the 2019 Theatre Book Prize awarded by the Society for Theatre Research.In 1982, rising actor Antony Sher played the Fool to Michael Gambon's King in the Royal Shakespeare Company's production of King Lear. Shortly after, he came back to Stratford to play Richard III – a breakthrough...

A remarkably candid autobiography, utterly involving and often startlingly revelatory, Antony Sher's Beside Myself is an inspiration to young actors and a treat for seasoned theatregoers.'I wish I'd read this book when I was starting out. Not only is Antony Sher one of the all-time greats of classical theatre, he also manages to be a writer of enormous skill and insight' David TennantActor, author, artist Antony Sher grew up in the Old South Africa...

'Antony Sher's insider journal is a brilliant exploded view of a great actor at work – modest and gifted, self-centred and selfless – a genius capable of transporting us backstage' Craig Raine, The Spectator (Books of the Year)Year of the Fat Knight is Antony Sher's account – splendidly supplemented by his own paintings and sketches – of researching, rehearsing and performing one of Shakespeare's best-known and most popular characters, Sir John Fa...

Selected readings and full-cast dramatisations from across the literary and science fiction of Iain BanksIain Banks, aka Iain M Banks, came to fame in 1984 with his transfixing debut The Wasp Factory, described as both ‘a work of unparalleled depravity’ and 'a masterpiece'. In 1993 he was acknowledged as one of the Best of Young British Writers, and his numerous bestselling books include The Crow Road, Complicity and the ‘Culture’ sci-fi ...

A BBC Radio 3 full-cast drama by Stephen Wakelam on a period in the life of Shakespeare, ‘The Pattern of Painful Adventures’, originally broadcast in the ‘Drama on 3’ slot on 23 November 2008 and repeated on 25 April 2010. Business is going well, but the playwright urgently needs a collaborator for his latest play. His daughter is getting married. His brother has a sick child and is in need of a job. It is 1607 and Shakespeare's life is at a turning point. Starring Antony Sher as William S...

Shylock, a Jewish moneylender, agrees to lend Antonio, a Venetian merchant, three thousand ducats so that his friend Bassanio can afford to court his love, Portia. However, Shylock has one condition: should the loan go unpaid, he will be entitled to a pound of Antonio’s own flesh. Meanwhile in Belmont, according to the terms of her father’s will, Portia’s many suitors must choose correctly from three caskets. Bassanio arrives at Portia’s estate and they declare their love for one another b...