All the world's a stage in Bernard Cornwell's thrilling 'Fools And Mortals'

Bernard Cornwell is best known for his spirited Saxon tales but Fools And Mortals sees him swap the comparative historic darkness of Saxon times for the far more luminous and well-documented world of Elizabethan England (1558-1603).

And what he offers is a sly take on the best known figure of that period, William Shakespeare, by making his chief narrator William’s pretty obscure brother Richard. This, as Blackadder would say, is a cunning plan. We know very little about the life of William and even less of his brother Richard. This is historical fiction gold – you can’t really be inaccurate when there are no sources to contradict you. So all the world is your stage.