Will

William Shakespeare is dying and his last will and testament needs urgent attention. It is March 1616. Will's lawyer, Francis Collins, is at the Stratford deathbed, and is privy to the great dramatist's final words. The will must be watertight if his client's son-in-law, the execrable Thomas Quiney, is not to benefit by his death, though Will has much to confess before he can explain this and other concerns. On his deathbed, Will unburdens himself. He was a poet for all time, but here he speaks of his time, his loves and his regrets. We hear of the dark ladies Jacqueline Vautrollier and Emilia Bassano, of the captivating Henry Wriothesley.We listen to his chilling eye-witness accounts of the Tyburn executions. We watch young Will roaming the midnight streets and lanes of Stratford and Shottery, sighing for Anne Hathaway; we watch the consummation and decay of that great love. We see him crossing the frozen Thames with the wooden beams that were to become the Globe theatre. We return with him to Stratford to that most heartbreaking of all journeys, the funeral of his only son, Hamnet. In his own final scene Will returns to the work he has written for the stage. Lines from the plays rise to his lips as he recalls the occasions of their making, and we find his life in every one of those lines. Finally, like Prospero he surveys his island of art, and cannot decide whether his great gift has been a blessing or a curse. Irrepressible, shocking, bawdy, witty, extravagant and wise, Will speaks to us across 400 years.

About the Author :
Christopher Rush is the author of twelve critically acclaimed works of fiction, poetry, screenplay and memoirs. From a seafaring family in Fife, Scotland, Rush moved away from a career in the Navy or as a fisherman to gain a first class degree from Aberdeen University. He was awarded a Research Fellowship to Cambridge but declined it to become a schoolmaster. He taught English in Scotland for 30 years and his first collection of short stories were published in 1983. His novel, Twelvemonth and a day, was short listed for Scottish Book of the Year Award and won the Scottish Arts Council award. His screenplay also gained him a shortlist nomination for McVitie Scottish Writer of the Year. However, Christopher suffered a decade-long writer's block after the sudden and tragic death of this first wife. Desperate to write again, he bought a donkey and followed Robert Louis Stevenson's journey around the Cevennes, about which he wrote his memoir, To Travel Hopefully (Profile books, 2005). With confidence once again to write, the author began, with the support of his second wife, to write what he calls now calls his 'lifetime achievement' - the 'autobiography' of William Shakespeare. Having dedicated nearly 50 years of his life to Shakespeare, Christopher wrote the novel Will in five weeks. Sir Ben Kingsley's production company, SBK Pictures, signed the world screen rights just days before publication of the novel. Production is set to begin in Spring 2008. The author lives in Crail, Fife with his wife and their daughter.

Review :
"[t]his spectacular novel...evokes the Bard and his landscape with mystery and utter confidence"Sir Ben Kingsley (Scottish Daily Mail) "An author whose novel was rejected 17 times by publishers has finally hit the jackpot."Daily Express"An excellent addition to the canon of Shakespeare novels...Shakespeare's voice is excellent, being by turns vulgar, ailing and startlingly poetic." Spectator"This is a fleshy novel indeed, gorgeous, garrulous and gross...brilliant and evocative." Independent on Sunday "Shakespeare completely overlooks the inheritance tax implications...But the failings of Will's will are easily overlooked by the triumph of the story."Solicitors Journal'this fictional autobiography does more than elegize...it conveys period atmosphere with deftness...linguistically witting and imaginative...the narrative is uplifting'TLS 5th October 2007"A most remarkable work. He has made the Bard live!" John Bayley"[He has] done an impossible job surprisingly well."Alasdair Gray"One of the few masterpieces about Shakespeare the novel has produced."Owen Dudley Edwards"Infinitely fascinating...Rush's language conjoins the mundane and the miraculous...Shakespeare's words are always more than their literal meaning. Rush uses his alchemy to make them eminently accessible, adding energy with exclamations and innuendo...This is illuminating stuff."Glasgow Herald