Mortons Books Shakespeare's Britain Back Issue

You’ve read the play, seen the live performance and watched the screen version. Now tread the boards for yourself – on the biggest Shakespearean stage of them all – Great Britain! This guide coincides with the Royal Shakespeare Company’s 2006-7 season in which, with the aid of theatrical troupes from abroad, Shakespeare’s Complete Works – all of the plays from the First Folio as well as his sonnets – are to be performed in his home town, Stratford-upon-Avon. Thanks to the works of its most famous son, Stratford has long been one of Europe’s biggest destinations for overseas visitors. However, as this special publication demonstrates, there is far more to Shakespeare than simply a splendid market town on the banks of the Warwickshire Avon.

Shakespeare wrote about real people in real places, from all walks of life - and the setting for so many of his plays was his homeland. With the aid of a decent road atlas, this special publication will enable you to enjoy a voyage of discovery through England, Scotland and Wales, visiting the locations that Shakespeare wrote about, the settings for some of his most famous scenes, and seeing places that, even though four centuries have passed since his day, he would certainly recognise. We begin not in Stratford, but in my home town of Solihull, where it is likely that some of Shakespeare's ancestors lived in a hamlet clearing of the great Forest of Arden, and which was to provide both the inspiration and setting for two of his greatest plays, A Midsummer Night's Dream and As You Like It. Stratford apart, south Warwickshire is in effect a giant Shakespeare theme park, with its multitude of half-timbered villages, with many houses built from the oaks of Arden, and historic country pubs, which the playwright almost certainly visited...

A unique travel guide to the British settings for Shakespeare’s plays, his family’s roots, his home town, and his life and times.