A provocative journey into one of literature’s most enduring mysteries, this book challenges everything we think we know about the man behind the name Shakespeare. A.J. Pointon delves into the life of William Shakspere of Stratford-upon-Avon – merchant, sometime actor, and, perhaps, an unwitting figure at the centre of a centuries‑old case of mistaken identity.

Drawing on meticulous research, Pointon strips away the myths that have long obscured Shakspere’s true circumstances, restoring him to the historical record as a real man rather than a literary legend. Along the way, the author investigates the alternative candidates for the authorship of the plays and sonnets – Christopher Marlowe, Edward de Vere, and Francis Bacon – assembling the evidence with scholarly precision and narrative flair. Both rigorous and revelatory, this study invites readers to reconsider the origins of the world’s greatest works of drama and poetry, and to explore anew the tantalising question: Who really wrote Shakespeare?