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Shakespeare on Toast - Getting a Taste for the Bardwww.shakespeareontoast.com
"Excellent" -- The Guardian
"A Masterclass" -- The Times "Compelling... A tasty snack with genius" -- The Independent
"Shakespeare on Toast is a brilliantly enjoyable, light-hearted
look at Shakespeare which dispels the myths and makes him accessible
to all. I love it!"
Judi Dench
Who’s afraid of William Shakespeare? Just about everyone. He wrote too much and what he wrote is inaccessible and elitist. Right?
Wrong. Shakespeare on Toast knocks the stuffing from the staid old myth of Shakespeare, revealing the man and his plays for what they really are: modern, thrilling, uplifting drama.
The colourful words and vibrant world of the world’s greatest hack writer are brought brilliantly to life by actor Ben Crystal. Sweeping cobwebs from the Bard – his language, his life, his world – Crystal reveals man and work as relevant, accessible, alive.
This is a book for everyone, whether you’re studying Shakespeare for the first time or you’ve never set foot near one of his plays, but have always wanted to. It smashes down the walls that have been built up around him, that have turned Shakespeare into an untouchable literary figure. Shakespeare, Crystal reminds us, invented popular culture.
Told in five fascinating Acts, this is quick, easy and good for you. Just like beans on toast.
...published by Icon Books, September 2008
"Ben Crystal is the Jamie Oliver of Shakespeare."
BBC Radio 5
"Humorous, unpretentious and fascinating."
Independent on Sunday
"There are gems of close reading and theatrically focused attention
throughout."
The Guardian
"Remarkable? This book should be read."
Sydney Morning Herald
"Shakespeare on Toast is reassuring and appealing ... you'll want
all your Shakespeare-resistant friends to read it."
Around The Globe
"Ben Crystal's excellent book is an ideal way to gain an understanding
of why Shakespeare is so brilliant, and so enjoyable."
Sir Richard Eyre
"Ben Crystal's witty and engaging book is a relaxed, user-friendly
reminder that enjoying Shakespeare should be as easy as breathing."
Dominic Dromgoole, Artistic Director of Shakespeare's
Globe
The Shakespeare Miscellanywww.shakespearemiscellany.com
This compilation, in the tradition of the Victorian miscellany, gathers together essential facts and fascinating insights into the plays and poems, the man behind them (insofar as this is known), and the context in which he worked.
Put together by an actor and a linguist - the pair who brought you 'Shakespeare's Words' (25000 copies sold as of 2005) - it will be quirky, illuminating and endlessly interesting. Topics covered include lost plays, what he would have studied at school, Shakespeare's pronunciation, why the Globe burned down and the difference between a Folio and a Quarto.
Shakespeare's Words: A Glossary and Language Companionwww.shakespeareswords.com
"Detailed, comprehensive, fascinating."
Kenneth Branagh
Shakespeare's Words is for people who love Shakespeare, or who love language, or both. David Crystal, one of the world's leading experts on the English Language, and his actor son Ben, have created an immensely practical and enlightening guide to understanding Shakespeare's language for readers, audiences, students, directors and actors.
They have collected over 14,000 words that can cause difficulty or be amiguous to the modern reader. Each word is glossed and illustrated by at least one quotation. There are succinct precis of the plays, lists of dramatis personae and a unique diagrammatic circle for each play demonstrating the interaction of characters and their allegiances. With special panels on intriguing areas such as archaisms, greetings, farewells and swear words, as well as dialects, Greek mythology, weapons and money, Shakespeare's Words will greatly enrich every reader's understanding and appreciation of the plays, and will encourage a new generation to treasure them.
"This is a fascinating guide to Shakespeare's language, an indispensable treasure chest for anyone who loves watching or reading the plays and is curious about the meaning, use and derivation of the language."
Sir Richard Eyre
"Shakespeare's Words is one of the very few works of reference that deserves a place on the shelves of all Shakespeare lovers and for that matter all lovers of the English language. In all too many cases explanation of Shakespeare's words - both those that have become obsolete and those that have changed in meaning - have been passed down from editor to editor since the nineteenth century. David and Ben Crystal, by contrast, have returned to first principles and in so doing produced the most comprehensive guide to Shakespeare's astonishing linguistic inventiveness that has ever been compiled."
Professor Jonathan Bate
"There can be no doubt that [the editors] have carried out their work admirably"
John Goss in The Sunday Telegraph, 9th June 2002
"The editors ... have produced a huge work of user-friendly scholarship ... It works brilliantly"
The Economist, 14th June 2002
