Will The Real William Shakespeare Please Step Forward!

"William Shakespeare was a con man! A faker and a forger!" With these words from a fellow-lecturer ringing in his ears, university lecturer, Daniel Ryhope, sets off on a quest to uncover the truth: Did Shakespeare really write Shakespeare?

Joined by his wife and two friends, Daniel begins the search, analyzing and sifting through information on writers and dramatists who were alive during the Shakespearean era. How was it that the writer of the greatest works in English came from a small market town? Did the creator of Hamlet and Macbeth have to be well-educated? Was Shakespeare a cover-name for an embarrassed aristocrat writer? Did he have connections at court? Was the writer a woman? Was it possible that the plays were written by a team?

In true detective fashion, Daniel and his friends investigate all the possible theories and eventually announce their conclusion, appropriately enough, in Stratford-upon-Avon, Shakespeare's hometown.

Using sources from far and wide, D. Lawrence-Young has written a fascinating novel which throws much light on the perennial question: Who Wrote Shakespeare?



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D. Lawrence-Young takes the often pompous and frequently silly “Shakespeare Authorship Controversy” and turns it into a fast-paced page-turning detective story. All the nooks and crannies of rival candidates and claims are traversed in interesting locations and often funny encounters. The SAC has got under the Shakespeare-loving and teaching David Young’s skin and he has turned this irritant into a pleasure to read and from which there is much to learn.

Joseph Lo Bianco

Professor of Language and Literacy Education

University of Melbourne