1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare

[A] brilliant study, which carefully unpacks a single year in Shakespeare's life ... The audacious focus on just one year pays off magnificently, and this solid book isn't a page too long.

By focusing on a single, extraordinary year in his artistic development, Shapiro has produced a far richer, more intimate portrait of our greatest author than you're likely to find in any cradle-to-grave biography. Seamlessly weaving colourful history with biography and lit crit, it's both erudite and accessible - highly deserving of its place on this year's Samuel Johnson Prize long list.

...a wonderfully fresh understanding of [Shakespeare's] work through the social and political background of that interesting year.

This is gripping and illuminating.

[A] fascinating and entirely believable portrait of a talented workaholic ... Shapiro's informed enthusiasm and energetic prose is addictive. Another 17 volumes, please, taking us up to Shakespeare's shuffling off his mortal coil.

Brave is the biographer who takes [Shakespeare] on, braver still James Shapiro, who's confined himself to just one year in his life. it's a masterstroke ... Shapiro tells you the sounds, the smells, the news and the work ... the man himself remains a mystery, but the air he breathed buzzes with life.