A brilliantly constructed and superbly executed historical tale…
Gray skillfully makes use of the scant biographical resources, bringing a sensible eye to Shakespeare’s life story in his debut. As Gray tells it, William Shakespeare was his parent’s first child to survive the infancy and had a relatively comfortable life in the beginning. After his marriage with Anne Heathway and the birth of his three children, he spent most of his time in London writing and performing in plays. Using the first-person narrative in the form of diary entries, Gray weave an intriguing tale with Shakespeare at the center. The various perspectives—from Shakespeare as a young lad growing up in Stratford-upon-Avon to a grown up man trying to make something out of his literary talent in the vast art world of London ring completely true. Gray deftly describes Tudor period details, food, manners, clothing, pastimes, socio-economic politics, the prosecution of Catholics under the regime of Elizabeth, and the vibrant early Jacobean Age. This wonderful biographical novel creates a thoroughly vivid and full portrait of Shakespeare. Readers will me mesmerized.
Love’s Labour’s Won: The Secret Life of William Shakespeare
By William Gray
Pub date June 25, 2020
ISBN 978-1734189001
Price $16.99 (USD) Paperback, $3.09 Kindle edition
