Shakespeare's restless world - Neil MacGregor

The
Elizabethan age was a tumultuous time, when long-cherished certainties
were crumbling and life was exhilaratingly uncertain. Shakespeare's Restless World
uncovers the extraordinary stories behind twenty objects from the
period to re-create an age at once distant and yet surprisingly
familiar. From knife crime to belief in witches, religious battles to
the horizons of the New World, Neil MacGregor brings the past to life in
a fresh, unexpected portrait of a dangerous and dynamic era.

'Fascinating
... filled with anecdotes and insights, eerie, funny, poignant and
grotesque ... another brilliant vindication of MacGregor's understanding
of physical objects to enter deep into our fore-fathers' mental and
spiritual world'
Christopher Hart, Sunday Times

'Enjoyable
and intriguing, an absorbing evocation ... he draws us into the minds
of the Elizabethan and Jacobean audience. Next time you see one of the
plays reading this book will make those first audiences seem real to
you'
Peter Lewis, Daily Mail

'How gripping are these
tales from a lost world. And what a world Shakespeare's was -
adventurous, melancholy, rich and plagued by beggary, courteous and
quarrelsome, sceptical and credulous'
Daily Telegraph

'Elegant, informative ... provides stimulating insights'
Anne Somerset, Spectator