This was my first Bernard Cornwell book and I was not disappointed. It is set in London in the Elizabethan period. The book is about Richard Shakespeare, a struggling actor and his more successful brother William. Richard and William have an uneasy relationship, working together. William does not appear to make life easy for his younger sibling. I was amazed at the amount of detail in the book. The period of time is when there is a growth of playhouses in the city. The details of London, fascinated me, from local roads to palaces. I found the characters well developed and to me it seems Bernard Cornwell has a great skill in depicting this story. I was engrossed, also learning something and wondering where the book was taking me. It was full of intrigue. and I am pleased to think the author has written many more books as with the attention he gave this book I am sure I will enjoy others. Story telling at it's best

Fools and mortals

For lovers of Shakespeare plays this gives us an insider view of the reality for players and writers. We see life in the aftermath of Queen Mary's religious fervor, Queen Elizabeth reign and the rise of the puritans.

Elizabethan life is cutthroat and as always, who you know, how much you own, what power you have is key to survival.

William's younger brother, Richard, joins him in London but they do not get on. Richard plays female roles but his age is against him and he desperatly wants to play a male part.

Playscripts are money and a rival steals Shakespeare's new plays. Richard makes a deal that if he can get them back his brother will give him a key, male part.

It's slow to start but then the action is all at once. Will Richard get the scripts, the part and the girl?

A worthy read for those interested in Shakespeare, history or romance. Beautifully written, weaving all of these aspects together in a very realisic world with credible characters.

I received a free copy from net galley.com for my fair and honest review.

Another stonker of a book by a well loved author, it's a bit one and takes a while to get into but a strong storyline all the complexity and beauty you expect from Cornwell.

Loved the actors perspective and the hardship and competition in the industry. Interesting point in time to have picked. I had never appreciated the importance of royal/ gentry support for the creation of theatre as we know it.

The initial “mystery” over the brothers identity was unnecessary as it was really obvious who he was, but didn’t detract from the plot.

I skipped some of the reciting from the plays (well I know the plot). If you hadn’t read them it might be confusing/ annoying?

This is not a normal blood and guts Bernard Cornwall book, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. A nicely paced book with engaging characters. The historical content was excellent without going into pages of explanation. I could quite easily see this story made into a film or TV series. Well done!

Richard was the brother of William Shakespeare and an actor at the theatre. He was accused of committing an offence by William. He set off to clear his name to win back his brother’s trust. Richard wanted to play as Romero.

The Protestant English were still persecuting the Roman Catholics in the name of Queen Elizabeth in the late 16th Century. They restricted the theatre to one performance a week.

Figuring out the ordinary lives in London was fascinating. The cost of velvet for the plays’ costumes was abnormally high. To buy these fabric textiles for use was to satisfy the Queen, who loved to watch the plays. These winters were cold and harsh. Only men were actors while women were prohibited to act in the theatres. Shakespeare was accused of being a Catholic.

I loved the funny sides of this story being written by the respected historical fiction author, Bernard Cornwell. Half-way through it, the thrilling events unfolded!

Caesar 13

Breakaway Reviewers received a copy of the book to review.

I'm a huge Bernard Cornwell fan. But what a disappointment this book was! For a man who usually meticulously researches and creates realistic historical fiction, this whole book came across as shallow. The time setting was dark and brutal, and yet this book is incredibly lighthearted. It was light, fun, but not at all something that I was expecting from a writer like Cornwell. It was thin on plot and had some historical inaccuracies. Overall, quite disappointing.

I'll preface this by saying I'm not a huge fan of first person writing but I am a fan of good storytelling. "Fools and Mortals" kept me engaged and interested, and I found myself talking about it to my partner a lot. I appreciated the detail in how Cornwell built his story's world and that I wasn't just told things or meant to take them as read. The main subject matter of the different parts in plays being kept separate to protect intellectual property was so interesting and I never felt like I had to go and research the history to better understand.
Overall, a very engaging read.

Was disappointed with this novel. Have enjoyed many of Cornwell's books in the past, am a fan of historical novels, and Shakespeare, so fully expected to enjoy this, but didn't. Just couldn't get into it.

Pursued by a bear...

A new playhouse is opening in London and the owners are determined to make it a huge success. Actors are easy to get hold of but new plays are the magic that bring in the playgoers. Over at the Theatre, Richard Shakespeare is struggling to survive on the measly wages he receives. He's getting too old to play women's roles and his older brother Will won't promise him roles playing men. He seems like the perfect target for the new playhouse – offer him regular well-paid work and perhaps he'd be willing to steal the two new scripts Will is working on – A Midsummer Night's Dream and Romeo and Juliet – and if he won't, maybe another member of Shakespeare's company will...

This is a fairly light-hearted novel set in the world of Shakespeare's London. Cornwell has undoubtedly taken some fictional liberties with the characters of Will and Richard Shakespeare, so it may not be one for purists, but otherwise it feels well researched to me, though I'm certainly no expert. Richard is a likeable character and it's his voice that tells us the tale. Will is not likeable and seems to really resent his younger brother, for reasons that I felt were never made totally clear, though I think we are probably supposed to assume that he feels Richard is trying to cash in on his success. Whatever the reason, the story is as much about these two men learning to respect each other as it is about the actual plot. And in the course of the book, Richard falls in love, so there's a romantic sub-plot too.

The company are rehearsing Will's new comedy which has been commissioned by their patron Lord Hunsdon to be performed as part of his daughter's wedding celebrations. Cornwell gives an interesting and often amusing account of how a play would have been developed back in those days, with parts designed around the talents of the regular cast and due attention paid to flattering patrons while ensuring that no reason could be found to ban it. He shows how the powerful Puritan lobby were against theatre in principle, but that Queen Elizabeth's love of it meant they were frustrated in their desire to have it prohibited. Shakespeare's company were in the privileged position of having the Lord Chamberlain as patron, but they still had to be careful not to cross the line. Cornwell takes us not only behind the scenes in the playhouse but also into the houses of the rich who could afford private performances, and even into the presence of Elizabeth herself. I found the details of how the plays were staged fascinating, from the creation of costumes to the need for regular intervals to trim the wicks of the candles that were used to provide lighting.

Cornwell also goes into detail on the story of A Midsummer's Night Dream. This is quite fun at first. It's a play I've never liked or revisited since being forced to study it while way too young to properly appreciate either the language or the comedy, so I was surprised when Cornwell sparked in me a desire to give it another try. However, unfortunately, after a while the detail becomes too much and somewhat repetitive, and it begins to feel more like a tutorial on the subject than a novel. It also slows the thing down too much – the fairly lengthy book is well over halfway before the main plot of the baddies' attempt to steal Will's plays really kicks off. Once it does though, it becomes a fine action romp. There is some violence but on the whole it remains light in tone – not nearly as graphic and gory as the only other Cornwell I've read, his Viking-world The Last Kingdom.

We also get to see the religious persecution of the time – at this period, of the Catholics by the Protestants – but again Cornwell keeps it light though hinting at the darker aspects of it off-stage, so to speak. And the ever present threat of plague is there too – a threat not just to life but to the actors' livelihoods too, since any upsurge in the plague would lead to a closure of the theatres to prevent its further spread. Cornwell lets us glimpse the crueller aspects of Elizabethan entertainment too – bear-baiting, etc. All of this together adds up to what feels like a realistic picture of life in London at that period. Cornwell opts not to attempt some kind of faux Tudor language – Richard talks in standard English but has what felt to me like reasonably authentic 16th century attitudes for the most part.

After a fairly slow start, then, I thoroughly enjoyed this entertaining venture into Shakespeare's world. I don't know whether this is a one-off or the start of a new series from the prolific Cornwell, but I'd certainly be happy to read another. 4½ stars for me, so rounded up.

NB This book was provided for review by the publisher, HarperCollins.

I loved this book! There's such a rich background of London, politics and theatre in the sixteenth century interwoven with a funny and exciting story of romance and sibling rivalry. Read it within a day.

Despite my love of historical fiction, Bernard Cornwell is not an author I’ve ever really felt like reading. The usual settings and subjects that he writes about don’t appeal to me and although I did once start to read his book on Stonehenge, I didn’t get very far with it before giving up. His latest novel, Fools and Mortals, however, sounded much more like my sort of book, so I thought it was time I gave him another chance.

The title is inspired by Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream (“Lord, what fools these mortals be!”) and it is Shakespeare who is at the heart of the novel – not William, though, but his younger brother, Richard, who has followed him to London in the hope of becoming an actor. I found this slightly confusing, because I remembered from reading Jude Morgan’s The Secret Life of William Shakespeare that it was their other brother, Edmund, who was the actor. I don’t know why Cornwell gave this role to Richard instead; the rest of the background to the novel seems to have been thoroughly researched, so I would be interested to know whether that was a deliberate decision rather than a mistake.

Anyway, Richard Shakespeare is our narrator. The novel opens in 1595 just as The Lord Chamberlain’s Men – the acting company to which both Richard and William belong – are beginning rehearsals for A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Until now, Richard, like several of the other young men in the company, has been given only women’s parts to play. He wants nothing more than to play a man for a change, but it seems that his brother is still determined not to take him seriously as an actor. There are other companies, of course, and other theatres, and Richard receives a tempting offer from Francis Langley of the newly constructed Swan in Southwark. However, this will depend on whether or not he is prepared to steal two of William’s new plays. Will Richard betray his brother and leave The Lord Chamberlain’s Men – or can he find another way to earn William’s respect and win the bigger, better roles he believes he deserves?

I enjoyed this book much more than I’d expected to! I imagine that battle and military scenes probably form a big part of most of Cornwell’s other books, but there was nothing like that in this one, which is set entirely in the world of the Elizabethan theatre. There is still plenty of action, but it takes the form of the attempts of other companies to steal Shakespeare’s plays and the efforts of the Pursuivants to find evidence of heresy and close the playhouses down. As the narrator, Richard is involved in all the drama, both on stage and off, and tells his story in a lively, humorous style. He has his flaws but is a likeable character – although I should warn you that William is not!

The other members of The Lord Chamberlain’s Men are also brought to life, from well known figures of the period such as the comic actor Will Kemp to those who are purely fictional. It was fascinating to see A Midsummer Night’s Dream take shape starting with the earliest stages – the allocation of parts to actors and the learning of lines – to rehearsals at the home of their patron, Lord Hunsdon, and then the final performance (I loved the hilarious description of the Pyramus and Thisbe play-within-a-play). However, I couldn’t help feeling that this all became very repetitive; I felt that the entire plot of the play had been described in detail a hundred times by the time I reached the end of the novel!

The book finishes with an author’s note from Cornwell; this is long and detailed, describing his interest in Shakespeare’s work and discussing the history behind London’s playhouses. Surprisingly, he doesn’t talk about Richard Shakespeare himself or why he was chosen to be the central character in the novel.

It would be nice to think that I would find the rest of Cornwell’s books as entertaining as this one, but I’m still not sure that any of the others would really be to my taste. I do have a copy of The Last Kingdom which I will try at some point and will be happy to be proved wrong!

What a treat! The Elizabethan Theatre has always intrigued me and here Bernard Cornwell has created a piece filled with scuffles, intrigues, muck and majesty! Richard Shakespeare is the nicer , if less talented sibling and his struggles to survive and be recognised as a man in man’s roles kept me rapt from start to finish!

Thanks Netgalley and the Publisher. I really struggled with this book and the style of writing. I have not read any of the authors books before as not really my thing. I am afraid that I did not finish it all.

Richard Shakespeare does not get on with his brother William. However to save from starving Richard works in William's team of actors, usually playing the female roles which he hates. Desperate to have a better role, win his brother's approval and win the hand of the woman he loves, Richard tries to recapture the stolen manuscript to Romeo and Juliet. This leads him into conflict with the Pursuivants and a confrontation with his own past.

Bernard Cornwell has a reputation of a writer who tells tales of heroism and derring-do. I really enjoy his action novels but this is a real change of pace. Essentially a witty, light-hearted look at some real and some fictional events set in the latter years of Elizabeth's reign, this book is lightweight but that isn't a bad thing. Cornwell displays a lightness of touch where he needs to , but the depth of his understanding of Tudor life is evident and the dramatic scenes are written with his usual bravado. A homage to Shakespeare and his ilk, this is a genuinely enjoyable novel.

I have not read such an atmospheric book set in the times of Elizabeth 1 which has been both enjoyable AND educational. You may not like William Shakespeare but here you have his brother, Richard, an actor who is trying to make his name for himself in some of his brother's plays. Excellent descriptions of London of the time, and the various playhouses. The other players within William Shakespeare's company add to the flavour when the author set out in detail the enactment of a couple of his plays which were put on for the first time. You might even enjoy and understand a little more of 'A Midsummer's Night Dream'? Hope there' more.

From the well-known Historical fiction writer is a story about players, actors on the stage, in the time of Elizabeth I. Women were still played by men and the brother of Will Shakespeare, Richard, is continually given women's roles with his brother's company. Between getting to be too old and taking a liking to a servant girl in a great house where they are to perform, Richard tries everything he can think of to get his brother to give him a male role.

Themes of dominance between brothers are fully explored in this story and I couldn't help but have sympathy for Richard, who, as a significantly younger brother, is constantly in his brother's shadow.

I don't know if Shakespeare really had a brother but I'm not going to look it up. I enjoyed this story and Richard was a likable character. Will Shakespeare came over as a callous, unfeeling brother, most of the time. Whether there i any accuracy to this is anybody's guess.

The story gave a good look at the life of players in Shakespeare's time and I found it was my preferred read among several books I've been reading at once. It is undeniably well-written and has plenty of excitement and a few laughs.

Fools and Mortals is an entertaining romp set in London during Elizabeth I's reign. We follow the exploits of Richard Shakespeare, the lesser known, younger brother to William Shakespeare. He is a talented player, cast entirely in female roles in William's plays, and grumpy with his brother as a result. He wants to play men's roles, have a purse full of coin and the respect of his brother but struggles on all fronts. Just when it seems things cannot get any more troublesome for him, an unexpected adventure sweeps him up and he must extricate himself from it or find himself hanging from the gallows.

This is a richly detailed novel choked full of descriptions of life from the lower class citizens to the wealthy in their manor houses. We learn of the great lengths one must go through when entertaining a wedding party especially when the Queen herself is in attendance.

The characters are a real delight. It's easy to like affable Richard and the gruffer William. Some characters are properly over the top but you would expect nothing else from players whose sole existence seems to be to entertain. There is much struggle in the life of a player especially at a time when religious unrest still holds sway and care must be shown not to offend the wrong people of power.

I loved this novel and felt immersed in this age of intrigue. I get the sense this could be the first of more books featuring the Shakespeare brothers but maybe that's wishful thinking on my part?

Thanks to NetGalley and to Harper Collins UK for providing me an ARC copy of this novel that I freely chose to review.
I had not read any of Bernard Cornwell’s novels before (I believe I have another one on my list and I’ll definitely check it out after this one) so I won’t be able to provide any comparison with the rest of his work. When I read some of the reviews, I noticed that some readers felt this novel was less dynamic than the rest and lacked in action. I cannot comment, although it is true that the novel is set in Elizabethan London and its events take place over a few months, rather than it being a long and sprawling narrative, ambitious in scope and detail. If anything, it is a pretty modest undertaking, as it follows the rehearsal and staging of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer’s Night Dream. The author’s note at the end clarifies much of the historical background, explaining what is based on fact and what on fancy, and also the liberties he has taken with the materials.
The story is told, in the first-person, by Richard Shakespeare, William’s younger (and prettier, as everybody reminds him) brother, who is also an actor (mostly playing women’s parts) and plays in his brother’s company, but he’s not a regular player in it. I am no expert on Shakespeare (although I know his plays, some better than others, and have read a bit about him) but checked and now know that although he had a brother called Richard, it seems he never left Strafford, whilst a younger brother called Edmund went to London to join his brother and was an actor. The Richard of the novel is no match for his brother and they do not like each other too well. Throughout the book, we learn about Richard, whose current adventures are peppered with memories of the past and his circumstances. His character lives hand-to-mouth, is always in debt, and illustrates how difficult life was at the time for youngsters without money and/or a family fortune. Although he does not dwell on the abuse he has suffered, modern readers will quickly realise that some things don’t change and children have always been preyed upon. He is a likeable enough character, and although he does some bad things (he was taught how to be a thief by a character who would have been perfectly at home in a Dickensian novel and is fairly skilled at it), there are things he will not do, and he is loyal to his brother, although sometimes it does not seem as if William deserves it. There are other interesting characters in the book (I particularly liked Sylvia, Richard’s love interest, and the priest who lives in the same house as Richard), but none are drawn in much psychological detail.
What the book does very well, in my opinion, is portray the London of the time, the political and religious intrigues (the Puritans trying to close the playhouses, the religious persecution and how an accusation could be used to implement vendettas and acquire power, the social mores of the times, the workings of taverns and inns, the river Thames as a thoroughfare, the law in and out of the walls of the city…), and particularly, the workings of a theatre company of the time. The different types of audiences and theatres, how they had to accommodate their performances to the setting and follow the indications of their patrons, the process of rehearsal, and details such as the building of a playhouse and its distribution, the staging of a play, the costumes they wore, their makeup, wigs… The book also uses fragments of Shakespeare’s plays and others of the period (and some invented too), and brings to life real actors of the era, creating a realistic feeling of what life on stage (and behind it) must have been like at the time. If you are wondering about William Shakespeare… Well, he is there, and we get to see him in action and also from his brother’s point of view. He appears as an author, an actor, a manager, and a man, but if any readers come to this book expecting new insights into Shakespeare, I’m afraid that is not what the novel is about.
There is a fair amount of telling (it is difficult to avoid in historical fiction), and plenty of historically appropriate words and expressions, although the language is easy to follow. There is also plenty of showing, and we get to share in the cold, the stink, the fear, and the pain the main character suffers. We also get to live the first performance of A Midsummer’s Night Dream, and it is glorious. In the second half of the book, things come to a head, and there are a few fights (fist fights, sword fighting, and even a pistol is discharged), romance, intrigue (although we are pretty convinced of how everything will end), and nice touches that Shakespeare lovers will appreciate (yes, there’s even a bear).
A solid historical novel, well-written, that flows well, placing us right in the middle of the late Elizabethan era, and making us exceptional witnesses of the birth of modern theatre. A must-read for lovers of theatre, especially classical theatre, Shakespeare, and historical fiction of the Elizabethan period. I will be sure to read more of Cornwell’s books in the future.

This is really fun, especially for an English teacher! I liked the brother's perspective, as we are used to Shakespeare being viewed as a paragon and here we see him as a rather dour and grumpy middle-aged manager; as an un-affectionate brother and largely-absent father; as a man of worldly appetites who is quite unafraid of violence. The supporting characters are a tad broad-brushed but this adds to the drama and dark comedy of the tale.
The plot is based on the theft of some plays and Cornwell does a great job of explaining why that was such a big deal back then; there is a sweet romance and if you aren't familiar with A Midsummer Night's Dream, youre about to be, as the whole play is described through the rehearsals and performance by The Lord Chamberlain's Men.
An agreeable historical novel by one of my favourite authors.