No single writer has shaped the way we speak and think more than William Shakespeare.

Whether we’re being cruel to be kind, wearing our hearts on our sleeves, or wrestling with the green eye’d monster — it’s almost impossible to use the English language without quoting him.

But who was Shakespeare? And what vaulting ambition drove a young writer from a sleepy town in the West Midlands to stardom in London?

Was he born great, or did he have greatness thrust upon him?

This is a biography of William Shakespeare.

A Noiser podcast production. Hosted by John Hopkins.

Written by Jo Furniss. With thanks to Dr Anjna Chouhan, Senior Lecturer in Shakespeare Studies at the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust.

This episode was originally featured on Short History Of...

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