Shakespeare and Co.: Christopher Marlowe, Thomas Dekker, Ben Jonson, Thomas Middleton, John Fletcher and the Other Players in His Story Book

Enjoyable, lively...such a pleasure to read...renders the drama of Shakespeare's contemporaries more than fringe entertainment' - Independent. Shakespeare is one of the greatest of all English figures, considered a genius for all time. Yet as this enthralling book shows, he was at heart a man of the theatre, one among a community of artists in the teeming world of Renaissance London - from the enigmatic spy Christopher Marlowe to the self-aggrandizing Ben Jonson, from the actor Richard Burbage to the brilliant Thomas Middleton. By bringing Shakespeare's contemporaries to life, Shakespeare & Co throws fresh new light on the man himself.Warm, cheerful, generous...Wells sketches a whole gallery of Shakespeare's fellow playwrights ...He brings each vividly to life, making you feel that you've met them personally in some Blackfriars tavern - Simon Callow. It was a time and place teeming with excitement, anecdote and incident, and Wells, in this richly enjoyable work, brings it to life with a novelist's sense of the telling detail - Dominic Dromgoole. Enthralling - Observer. This is one of the most sane and exciting books on Shakespeare I have read for a long time. Scotland on Sunday.

Shows that Shakespeare was a man of the theatre, one among a community of artists in the teeming world of Renaissance London. This book also sketches a gallery of Shakespeare's fellow playwrights. Enjoyable, lively...such a pleasure to read...