About The Book

Plagued by debt, tormented by writer’s block, and in desperate need of a new hit, promising new playwright Will Shakespeare finds his muse in the form of passionate young noblewoman Viola De Lesseps. Their forbidden love soon draws everyone, including Queen Elizabeth, into the drama, and inspires Will to write the greatest love story of all time: Romeo and Juliet.

Based on the Oscar-winning screenplay by Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard, Shakespeare in Love has been deftly adapted for the stage by Lee Hall and played to rave reviews and a sold-out theater at the Noël Coward in London. The London production was directed by Declan Donnellan and designed by Nick Ormerod, the driving force behind the world-renowned theater company, Cheek by Jowl.

Praise

“An absolute joy from beginning to end.” —Daily Express (5 stars)

“There’s the elating sense that the material—with its rivalry between two public playhouses echoing the feud between the Montagues and Capulets—is reveling in its natural element in the theater. . . . It makes you feel grateful to be alive.” —Independent (5 stars)

“Marvelously fluid, riotously funny and often intensely, even startlingly, poignant . . . This may be, in part at least, a comedy about Shakespeare falling in love; but joking aside, it could just make you fall, all over again, in love with Shakespeare.” —Chicago Tribune

“Funny, often genuinely moving and generates a glow you could warm your hands by. . . . The best British comedy since One Man, Two Guvnors and deserves equal success.” —Daily Telegraph (5 stars)