Sir Henry Neville Was Shakespeare: The Evidence

Who wrote the works of Shakespeare? Revealing newly discovered evidence, John Casson and William D. Rubinstein definitively answer this question, presenting the case that the man from Stratford simply did not have the education, cultural background and breadth of life experience necessary for him to write the plays traditionally attributed to him.Instead, the most credible candidate is Sir Henry Neville, who certainly did have all the necessary qualifications. A colourful Renaissance man educated at Merton College, Oxford, Neville’s life experience precisely matches that revealed in the plays.Casson and Rubinstein take us on a breath-taking journey of discovery through the development of Shakespeare’s plays and poetry, compellingly drawing close parallels between the works and events in Neville’s life. They reveal how Neville’s annotated library books, manuscripts, notebooks and letters show he was the hidden author, who survived dangerous political times by keeping his authorship secret. The book contains a great deal of remarkable new evidence, expertly presented, that will challenge anyone’s ideas about who really wrote the Shakespeare plays.

John Casson is a retired psychotherapist who has completed thirty years’ practice as a dramatherapist and psychodrama psychotherapist. He lives near Bolton in Lancashire. He is the author of two academic books on Henry Neville as Shakespeare: ’Enter Pursued by a Bear’ and ’Much Ado About Nothing’, both published by Dolman Scott. Professor Rubinstein is a recently retired professor of History at the University of Wales, Aberyswyth and had previously been professor of History at Deakin University in Victoria, Australia. He now lives in Melbourne, Australia, and is currently adjunct professor at Monash University. Educated at Swarthmore College and Johns Hopkins University in the United States, he has written widely on British, Jewish and Australian history.