In their pioneering and brilliant book of literary detection, Dr John Casson and Professor William D. Rubinstein powerfully present the evidence for establishing that William Shakespeare of Stratford-on-Avon did not have the education, cultural background, and breadth of life experience, compatible with the high literary achievements of the plays traditionally attributed to him.

There is no evidence that he had any education at all. At best he left grammar school in Stratford at about age thirteen, and so he was not well enough educated to have acquired the erudition to be found in hundreds of references from classical and more modern authors, some of which had not yet been translated into English.

However, another author did have all those distinctive qualities: the colourful Renaissance man, Sir Henry Neville, educated at Merton College, Oxford, whose life span (1562-1615) coincided almost identically with that of William Shakespeare (1564-1616). In the last few years, he has emerged as the most credible contender for being the true author of Shakespeare’s works.

Dr Casson and Professor Rubinstein take us on an illuminating and ground-breaking journey of discovery through the chronological development of Shakespeare’s plays and poetry, compellingly drawing the close parallels between themes and events in the works and Neville’s well-recorded life.