Synopsis: Leaving behind his farming family, Sam Gilburne wants to enter the acting profession, a vocation that is seen as inferior by the more elite members of English society at the time. Once working as an apprentice in the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, Sam is frustrated by always playing the shorter, less pretty girls whilst his best friend, the effeminate and possibly homosexual William Hughes, has the prettier, wittier and taller roles to play.

Sam soon discovers that being a player is everything he dreamed it would be but when he falls in love with the niece of Lord Essex he fears that he will never be able to marry the woman of his heart’s desire and remain a player in Shakespeare’s company. Having learnt she feels the same way about him gives Sam the confidence to act in clandestine ways in order to exchange passionate letters declaring their love.

Review: This novel had me smiling from the first pages and provides a fascinating insight into the social, historical and cultural background of Elizabethan England and the political situation at the time. Readers can learn all about William Shakespeare, The Globe Theatre and the lives of actors and playwrights in this accessible and amusing novel which offers valuable research potential. It would work well as a class reader either as part of or instead of a Shakespeare project. Its wealth of information, I would argue, renders reading dry text books unnecessary.

This novel may have been inspired by ‘Shakespeare In Love’ and it certainly has some reminiscent moments but it is an individual story with much to recommend it. Shakespeare as matchmaker is an amusing idea and the romantic element is balanced effectively with the potential uprising against the monarch. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it and will recommend it to individual students and seriously consider buying in a class set. There may be some delicate issues that need explaining such as the intimated homosexuality but other than that, it is essentially a love story set in a time of class division (some things never change) and political unrest.

2008-01-02