With great imagination, colour and skill, renowned writer and dramatist Christopher Rush takes the reader inside the mind of the world famous Bard of Avon through encounters with his lawyer as they prepare his will. This fictional autobiography was first published in 2007 and has been reissued to mark the 450th anniversary of William Shakespeare's birth.
A 'Piece of Passion' from the publisher...
'In this the 450th anniversary of Shakespeare’s birth it’s a supreme pleasure to be publishing this brilliant imagining of the Bard’s life. Christopher Rush dazzles with his portrayal of the dying Shakespeare, his reflections on his life and the landscape of London as he cleverly interweaves everyday struggles with sublime flashes of poetic genius. He has made the Bard live again.'
William Shakespeare is dying, with his lawyer at his bedside. It is time to dictate his will. But how can a man put his affairs in order before he's come to terms with his past? Acclaimed poet, novelist, and Shakespeare professor Christopher Rush has put thirty years of scholarship and creativity into this unforgettable re-imagining of the Bard's life. Rush takes readers into the mind of William Shakespeare, a man whose almost superhuman art was forged from very human frailties and misfortunes. Will takes us back to Shakespeare's childhood, his first encounters with sex, and the dangers of politics, plague, and love. We hear the chilling account of the Tyburn executions, see him crossing the frozen Thames with the wooden beams that would become the Globe theater, and return with him to Stratford on the heartbreaking journey to bury his only son. Rush has created an utterly irresistible figure whose voice rings true across four hundred years--irrepressible, bawdy, witty, and wise, his every word steeped in the situations and phrases of his own plays.
'This fictional autobiography does more than eulogize - Burgess is the only other novelist to pass this test' - Times Literary Supplement
'A brilliantly witty and imaginative piece of writing.' - Classic FM
Author
About Christopher Rush
Christopher Rush was born in St Monans and taught literature for thirty years a teacher of literature in Edinburgh. His books include A Twelvemonth and a Day and the highly acclaimed To Travel Hopefully. A Twelvemonth and a Day served as inspiration for the film Venus Peter, released in 1989.
The story was also reworked by Rush in a simplified version in 1992 as a children's picture book, Venus Peter Saves the Whale, illustrated by Mairi Hedderwick, which won the Friends of the Earth 1993 Earthworm Award for the book published that year that would most help children to enjoy and care for the Earth.
