The Secret Life of William Shakespeare

A fictional chronicle of the offstage drama in the Bard’s personal life, from his pursuits of fame and success to family and love—“An entertaining read” (Booklist).

A Kirkus Reviews Best Fiction Books of the Year

There are so few established facts about how the son of a glove maker from Warwickshire became one of the greatest writers of all time that some people doubt he could really have written so many astonishing plays. We know that he married Anne Hathaway, who was pregnant and six years older than he, at the age of eighteen, and that one of their children died of the plague. We know that he left Stratford to seek his fortune in London, and eventually succeeded. He was clearly an unwilling craftsman, ambitious actor, resentful son, almost good-enough husband. But when and how did he also become a genius?

The Secret Life of William Shakespeare pulls back the curtain to imagine what it might have really been like to be Shakespeare before a seemingly ordinary man became a legend. In the hands of acclaimed historical novelist Jude Morgan, this is a brilliantly convincing story of unforgettable richness, warmth, and immediacy.

“It's hard to imagine a better historical novel about the Bard than this one; in quality and power, it rivals Hilary Mantel's justly acclaimed books (Wolf Hall; Bring Up the Bodies) about Thomas Cromwell. . . . Morgan’s novel will stimulate the same literary enthusiasm for the Elizabethans.”―Library Journal (starred review)

“Jude Morgan creates a personal life for Shakespeare in this absorbing, entirely believable piece of historical fiction. If this is not what William Shakespeare actually said and did, it certainly could have been.” —The Scotsman (UK)