This inevitably controversial new work casts entirely new light on who wrote the Shakespeare plays.

The Shakespeare authorship question is the longest running and most heated literary controversy in history. In a major new contribution David Taylor offers a comprehensive review of how and why the man from Stratford-upon-Avon became accepted as the sole playwright. However, he shows that the First Folio of 1623 includes a surprising number of contentious statements, which in fact undermine claims made for the man from Stratford as the sole author.

Modern research strengthens such scholarly queries. New 'attribution research' has revealed that he had several collaborators, with about a third of his plays being co-written. Taylor investigates who were his collaborators or partners. He shows that disguised authorship was normal then.

Hidden meanings, codes, devices and emblem books were much used. He has identified such a cipher system in the First Folio's Dedicatory Epistle and found written confirmation of its use. This distinctive message is supported amongst other evidence by the allusive imagery in Love's Labour's Lost, the first play to carry Shakespeare's name. Taylor has identified 'the silent partner.'