Decent non-fiction texts are very hard to come by, mostly because they aren't very well advertised (if at all). Last month I asked for advice about decent non-fiction titles as our school library, whilst having tons of non-fiction did not really boast anything new or half decent. Shockingly some of our non-fiction titles were older than 20 years!
Anyway, after making some enquiries I was given a list of the top 100 titles (a big thanks to @playbythebook on Twitter). Sadly getting hold of one book in that list was hard going. Even the public libraries were a bit of a let down. I managed to get hold of this one in a public library though.
It's not hard to guess that I'm a lover of the bard. I happen to have a tiny miniature plastic skull named Yorick (guess the play) at home.
I was lucky enough last year to visit his home town of Stratford Upon Avon. It was there that I got to see his birthplace (where I learned that hitting the hay was a phrase coined in his era as mattresses were made of it) and his grave!
I don't pretend to have Shakespeare's works committed to memory, nor do I claim to be any kind of Shaksperean expert, but I do love to learn anything and everything about him and the times that he lived in. If by chance I happen to forget certain facts, then I love to learn them all over again.
The Comedy, History and Tragedy of William Shakespeare is a beautifully comprehensive take on his life, works and the times in which he lived. It provides short, easy to digest facts about where he was born, what his school life would've been like, his adult life and a break down of his works.
It displays the timeline of his life in seven simple chunks which appeal more to younger readers. It breaks down his three types of play (tragedy, comedy and history) and explains each type brilliantly. It even goes so far as to provide a couple of examples of each type of play and succinctly summarises their plots. The plot summary of King Lear is a particular stroke of genius as it says in two sentences what took me two read throughs of the play itself to understand (in short, that everyone dies pretty much).
There are new facts to be gleaned and they are all presented beautifully, the text often moulding around the lovely illustrations. The most impressive thing is the presentation of the facts. Things like 'blank verse' and 'groundlings' are explained well without any frills or fuss, making it accesible for children and adults.
It is 45 pages of cleverness and I'd easily read it repeatedly as I feel it'd be a joy and I'd learn something new every time. Did you know that he's responsible for introducing words like 'torture' into the English language? I'll remember that the next time I'm asked to go through the library to weed out old, redundant non-fiction!
Book 15 of my 52 book list and my first non-fiction review. Go give it a read!
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