The Shakespeare Diaries: A Fictional Autobiography

What was Shakespeare thinking while he was writing Hamlet? What did he and Ben Jonson talk about when they were having a drink together? Did he meet Queen Elizabeth? What might Shakespeare have said to the formidable monarch?

In The Shakespeare Diaries, J. P. Wearing, Professor Emeritus of English at the University of Arizona, blends fact with fiction to create a unique fictional autobiography of the great playwright that takes the reader into The Bard’s life like never before. The Shakespeare Diaries provides a window into Shakespeare’s world-his day-to-day life, his work, his friends and associates, and his view of daily events-thus giving readers a vivid impression of the Elizabethan era and Shakespeare’s role within that society.

Writing in diary form, in the delightfully whimsical style of Shakespeare himself, Wearing incorporates many fragments of lines and phrases from The Bard’s plays and poems. Fascinating endnotes provide further annotation and information for those readers who wish to know more. Readers new to Shakespeare will be drawn in by such an intimate portrait, while seasoned aficionados (students, teachers, scholars, actors, and theatre-goers) will relish this fresh, offbeat approach to the man and his work.