Whos afraid of William Shakespeare? Just about everyone. He wrote too much & what he did write is inaccessible & elitist. Right? Wrong. Shakespeare on Toast" knocks the stuffing from the staid old myth of Shakespeare revealing the man & his plays for what they really are: modern thrilling & uplifting drama. Actor & author Ben Crystal brings the bright words & colourful characters of the worlds greatest hack writer brilliantly to life handing over the key to Shakespeares plays unlocking the so called difficult bits & astonishingly finding Shakespeares own voice amid the poetry. Told in five fascinating Acts " Shakespeare on Toast" sweeps the cobwebs from the Bard
- from his language his life his time
- revealing both the man & his work to be relevant accessible & full of beans."

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Lily Bard has started over in the quiet town of Shakespeare Arkansas where she works as a cleaning lady. But shes about to go back to where she came from & where Lily goes danger follows.. . Determined to move beyond her violent past Lily heads to Bartley her hometown for her sisters Christmas Eve wedding. But theres something in the air besides festive cheer: the towns doctor & nurses have been bludgeoned to death & Lilys detective boyfriend has followed an eight-year-old kidnapping case straight to Bartley. It just might have something to do with the murders.. .and with her sisters fiance. With only three days to the wedding Lily must work fast to clean up the messy case before her sister promises to love honour & obey a killer. ...

Welcome to the George Inn near London Bridge; a cosy wood-pannelled galleried coaching house a few minutes walk from the Thames. Grab yourself a pint listen to the chatter of the locals & consider this: who else has made this their local over the last 600 years? Chaucer & his fellow pilgrims almost certainly drank in the George on their way out of London to Canterbury. Shakespeare may well have popped in from the nearby Globe for a pint & we know that Dickens definitely did. Mail carriers changed their horses here before heading to all four corners of Britain -- while sailors drank here before visiting all four corners of the world... The pub as Pete Brown points out is the primordial cell of British life & in the George he has found the perfect case study. All life is here from murderers highwaymen & ladies of the night to gossiping pedlars & hard-working clerks. So sit back & watch as buildings rise & fall over the centuries & the beer drinkers Bill Bryson (TLS) takes us on an entertaining tour through six centuries of history through the stories of everyone that ever drank in one pub. ...

From Neil Mac Gregor the acclaimed creator of A History of the World in 100 Objects" & the Director of the British Museum comes a unique enthralling exploration of the age of William Shakespeare to accompany a new BBC Radio 4 series. Shakespeare lived through a pivotal period in human history. With the discovery of the New World the horizons of Old Europe were expanding dramatically
- & long-cherished certainties were crumbling. Life was exhilaratingly uncertain. What were Londoners thinking when they went to see Shakespeares plays? What was it like living in their world? Here Neil Mac Gregor looks at twenty objects from Shakespeares life & times & uncovers the fascinating stories behind them. The objects themselves range from the grand (such as the hoard of gold coins that make up the Salcombe treasure) to the very humble like the battered trunk & worn garments of an unknown pedlar. But in each case they allow Mac Gregor to explore issues as diverse as piracy & Islam Catholicism & disguise. Mac Gregor weaves the histories of objects into the words of Shakespeares plays themselves to suggest to us where his ideas about religion national identity the history of England & the world human nature itself may have come from. The result is a fresh & thrilling evocation of Shakespeares world."
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Neil Mac Gregor the Director of the British Museum looks at the world through the eyes of Shakespeares audience by exploring objects from that turbulent period. Examining these objects Neil discusses how Shakespeares audiences understood & made sense of the unstable & rapidly changing world in which they lived. With old certainties shifting around them in a time of political & religious unrest & economic expansion Neil asks what the plays would have meant to the public when they were first performed. Neil uses objects to explore the great issues of the day that preoccupied the public & helped shape the works & considers what they can reveal about the concerns & beliefs of Shakespearean Engl&. ...

Shakespeares Sonnets have caused endless debate & speculation: who is the dark lady; who is the only begetter; & what light do the poems shed on the life of the poet? Yet the sonnets themselves can be enjoyed for their lyricism rather than their intention. Written as a form of personal confession
- of love of grief of anger of jealousy & of lust
- the sonnets encompass a huge range of human emotion beautifully expressed within the restrictions of the form. Some such as Shall I compare thee to a summers day" or " Let me not to the marriage of true minds" will be instantly familiar to readers while others equally rich in imagery are less well known. Together they form a powerful meditation on the nature of love marriage beauty & time."

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Lily Bard has started over in the quiet town of Shakespeare Arkansas as a cleaning lady. She works out her anger & the pain of her past with martial arts. For Lily the gym is a place to get away from her troubles not find more of them. But when she stumbles on the corpse of a local bodybuilder his neck broken with a barbell the town's underlying racial tensions begin to boil over. The white victim was connected to two unsolved murders of black residents in Shakespeare & a dogged policeman is determined to stop the killing. Lily may have to decide whether to stay & fight for justice or run away one more time. ...

Cleaning woman & karate expert Lily Bard is a woman with a complicated past. Trying her best to cope with her terrifying memories she decides to join a therapy group in her adopted hometown of Shakespeare Arkansas. As it turns out the group members' feelings aren't the only things that need sorting out as they assemble for a session only to find a woman dead left on display to send a twisted message. Lily soon finds herself embroiled in the murder & its aftermath. Some of her own terrible secrets have been dredged up & she may not be able to rest until she can untangle the 'who' & the 'why' of this terrible crime. But can she do so before the killer strikes again
- & before her own nightmares send her over the edge?
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Welcome to Shakespeare Arkansas Disguising herself with short hair & baggy clothes Lily Bard has started over as a cleaning lady in the sleepy town of Shakespeare where she can sweep away the secrets of her dark & violent past. However her plan to live a quiet unobserved life begins to crumble when she discovers the dead body of her nosy landlord. Lily doesn't care who did it but as the suspicion of the police & local community falls on her she soon realises if she doesn't unmask the murderer her life might not just crumble: it might also end. ...

Shakespeare's sonnets are revered the world over for perfectly capturing the torments & joys of love unrequited or otherwise in just fourteen lines of iambic pentameter. Twenty-nine of the bard's most romantic sonnets are included in this beautiful hardcover all of them lovingly illustrated by the talented Caitlin Keegan. Pretty & contemporary the illustrations tastefully accentuate the depth of sentiment in each sonnet. A brilliant sun rises over the 17th Sonnet (' Shall I Compare thee to a summer's day?') & a graceful animal adorns the 19th Sonnet (' Devouring time blunt thou the lion's paws'). Available just in time for Valentine's Day but appropriate for any spontaneous expression of love this is an ideal sophisticated gift for the legions of Shakespeare fans. ...