Shakespeare’s House

A sparklingly irreverent and yet sympathetic account of how and why Shakespeare’s birthplace became The Birthplace. Schoch brings the Stratford-upon-Avon that Shakespeare would have known vividly to life before telling the story of how a house in Henley Street turned into cultural heritage. It is a tale of fluctuating family fortunes, changing ideas of authorship, unashamed entrepreneurialism, mingled national reverence and hypocrisy, and how much the Birthplace has been worth and to whom. Brilliantly detailed and impeccably researched new materials dug out of the archive shed light on the second-best bed, the mulberry tree, the earliest tourists, the fabrication of Shakespeare relics, the auction of the house in 1847 and restoration anxieties. The Birthplace comes into new focus as a strange and wonderful amalgam of the genuine and sham, history and mythology. Essential reading for all Shakespeare enthusiasts – thrilling, entertaining, definitive. * Nicola J. Watson, The Open University, UK * Richard Schoch's beautifully extracted account of how the site of Shakespeare's birth became an international icon is Shakespearean in its range and ambition. His impressive cast includes poets, novelists, historians, biographers, actors, scholars, visual artists, local personalities, a circus-entrepreneur, even royalty, all of whom process across Schoch's Birthplace-stage and earn a place in the story. This is not only a gripping account of how Shakespeare's Birthplace evolved (family residence, inn, butcher's shop, pub, site of pilgrimage, museum, library, archive), but a delightful tour through the highlights of the first three hundred years of Shakespeare's Stratford-upon-Avon. * Paul Edmondson, Head of Research, The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, UK *