A THE TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR 2019'The best introduction to the plays I've read, perhaps the best book on Shakespeare, full stop' Alex Preston, Observer'It makes you impatient to see or re-read the plays at once' Hilary MantelA genius and prophet whose timeless works encapsulate the human condition like no others. A writer who surpassed his contemporaries in vision, originality and literary mastery....

This lively and innovative introduction to Shakespeare promotes active engagement with the plays, rather than recycling factual information. Covering a range of texts, it is divided into seven subject-based chapters: Character; Performance; Texts; Language; Structure; Sources and History, and it does not assume any prior knowledge. Instead, it develops ways of thinking and provides the reader with resources for independent research through the 'Where next?' sections at the end of each chap...

A beautiful new middle-grade novel from Waterstones Prize shortlisted Emma Smith-Barton about the eternal power of friendship, memory and love.Atlas's Grandpa is beginning to forget things. The end of stories, where he put things - and Atlas is worried that soon Grandpa will forget him, too. Mum says that will never happen, not really - but Atlas is determined to fix him.Skye is forgetting things, too. Like how it feels to have her big sister around now she...

Engaging with histories of the book and of reading, as well as with studies of material culture, this volume explores ’popularity’ in early modern English writings. Is ’popular’ best described as a theoretical or an empirical category in this period? How can we account for the gap between modern canonicity and early modern print popularity? How might we weight the evidence of popularity from citations, serial editions, print runs, reworkings, or extant copies? Is something that sells a lot...

This is a biography of a book: the first collected edition of Shakespeare's plays printed in 1623 and known as the First Folio. It begins with the story of its first purchaser in London in December 1623, and goes on to explore the ways people have interacted with this iconic book over the four hundred years of its history. Throughout the stress is on what we can learn from individual copies now spread around the world about their eventful lives. From ink blots to pet paws, from annotations...

The Far Cry was the first book on MacGibbon & Kee's newly-launched list. This 'savage comedy with a vicious streak' (Elizabeth Bowen in the Tatler in 1949) describes the 'second passage to India' of 'Teresa, whose elderly, wilful father drags her off to spare her from the clutches of her mother…I can think of no writer, British or Indian, who has captured so vividly, with such intensity, the many intangibles of the Indian kaleidoscope; Emma Smith harnessed those intense impressions of her ...

Shakespeare Survey is a yearbook of Shakespeare studies and production. Since 1948, Survey has published the best international scholarship in English and many of its essays have become classics of Shakespeare criticism. Each volume is devoted to a theme, or play, or group of plays; each also contains a section of reviews of that year's textual and critical studies and of the year's major British performances. The theme for Volume 74 is 'Shakespeare and Education. The complete set of Surve...

'Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood clean from my hand?' Dark and violent, Macbeth is a restless, haunting exploration of the human costs of violence and power. One of the most theatrically spectacular of Shakespeare's plays, Macbeth has endured as a psychologically and supernaturally sinister work. Emma Smith's introduction considers the historical and contemporary contexts of the play, from the influence of the Gunpowder Plot as an act of domestic te...

______________'Wonderfully written, humorous and humane, and beautifully evocative of the time' - Independent Summer Reads'Smith's writing exudes wisdom and humour, and her descriptions ... are vividly drawn' - Times Literary Supplement'Hope and energy radiate from every sentence of this lovely volume as it emerges into the light after its long sojourn in the cemetery of forgotten books'

'A fascinating journey into our relationship with the physical book...I lost count of the times I exclaimed with delight when I read a nugget of information I hadn't encountered before' Val McDermid, The TimesMost of what we say about books is really about the words inside them: the rosy nostalgic glow for childhood reading, the lifetime companionship of a much-loved novel. But books are things as well as words, objects in our lives as well as worlds in ou...

______________'A delight' - Spectator'An entrancing memoir' - Jane Shilling, New Statesman'A wonderful journey beautifully told, and like all great memoirs, remains with the reader like the echo of friendship' - Independent on Sunday______________The new memoir from the author of Maidens' Trip and The Great Western Beach...

Shakespeare's First Folio, published in 1623, is one of the world's most studied books, prompting speculation about everything from proof-reading practices in the early modern publishing industry to the 'true' authorship of Shakespeare's plays. Arguments about the nature of the First Folio are crucial to every modern edition of Shakespeare and thus to every reader or student of the plays. This Companion surveys the critical methods brought to bear on the Folio and equips readers with the t...