Thank you, Michael Blanding and Hachette Books for the opportunity to read this book!

In Shakespeare’s Shadow by Michael Blanding has also been published as North by Shakespeare. Not to be confused with North of Shakespeare by Dennis McCarthy. It is an investigative journalism piece based on the research of Dennis McCarthy. Dennis McCarthy has spent his life researching the actual authorship of Shakespeare’s plays. He argues that Sir Thomas North is the actual person behind the iconic plays.

Sir Thomas North was born in 1535 and was a lawyer and translator. He has translated Plutarch’s Lives into English. Blanding has done extensive research into Sir Thomas North’s history. Still, it was the due diligence of McCarthy that brought to light a North family manuscript that was a detailed travel diary that had key details seen in Shakespeare’s works.

Why didn’t this book exist when I was taking The History of English Theater?! It would have been a fantastic resource. The authors go into a wonderful analysis of all of Shakespeare’s plays and the history behind them. However, there is no concrete evidence. This is a theory, while the manuscript does open up the conversation of speculation, it doesn’t change anything regarding the authorship.