Young Will

A fresh and vivid re-imagining of Shakespeare's early years in Stratford and in London

It's 1616 and William Shakespeare is back in his native Stratford-Upon-Avon. His extraordinary career as a playwright and poet in London seems like another world. A strange encounter with a witch-like madwoman in his local churchyard fills Will with dread, and sends him reeling back in memory to those darker days in London along the filthy, fevered banks of the Thames-a time when politics, plagiarism, sexual passions, and betrayed friendship conspired to the point of murder.

Author Bruce Cook perfectly captures Shakespeare's coming of age in a fresh and vivid way. The actors, teachers, lovers, and fellow writers spring to life in Shakespeare's confessions-especially a talented, twisted, compelling, and dangerous man called Kit Marlowe, who would change Will's life forever.

Shakespeare speaks, from first page to last, and tells everything. Literally everything...