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Lead book review

Shakespeare sceptics are the new literary heroes

Determined sceptics will always find reasons to cast doubt on Shakespeare’s authorship, but who cares in the end, Emma Smith wonders

3 June 2023

9:00 AM

3 June 2023

9:00 AM

Shakespeare was a Woman and Other Heresies: How Doubting the Bard Became the Biggest Taboo in Literature Elizabeth Winkler

Simon & Schuster, pp.416, 20

Let’s start with the basics. Despite widespread disinformation, including in Shakespeare was a Woman and Other Heresies, there is in fact ample historical evidence from the period that a) attributes the plays and poems to William Shakespeare, b) registers the same William Shakespeare as an actor and shareholder in Lord Chamberlain’s, later King’s Men, and c) connects this William Shakespeare with the William Shakespeare of Stratford-upon-Avon.

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