Book review: Shakespeare Was a Woman and Other Heresies

Almost as long as the plays of William Shakespeare have been in existence, it seems there have been questions about their authorship. Although I was aware of the main arguments in this debate, Elizabeth Winkler's new book, controversially entitled Shakespeare Was a Woman and Other Heresies is an academic deep-dive into whether we can, in all honesty, be sure that what we have all been taught and indeed what we teach is in fact true.

I admit to being sceptical at first. I was interested to read what Winkler had to say, but it just seemed too ridiculous an idea when we have a birthplace, a playhouse and an entire canon of work attributed to William Shakespeare, that he didn't actually write any of it. We have all spent a large part of our formative years, or in fact most of our lives studying the man, the plays, the poems. What is there to question exactly? Yes, it would be fascinating to consider that Shakespeare wasn't the author, as that would throw all sorts of things we ‘know’ about literature, and history into question, but is it all just conjecture or is there actual evidence behind these seemingly ‘wild’ claims? And if there is real truth to it, what else should we be questioning?

Perhaps I am too easily swayed, or conceivably I just can't come up with enough effective counter arguments, but two or three chapters in, I found myself completely hooked. I read aghast at the detailed information that Elizabeth Winkler presented in her extremely thorough book. Her research alone is astounding, whether you believe her arguments or not.

My only real gripe is her title. It led me to believe that a woman was at the heart of her argument into the authorship debate, but she doesn't get onto the real deliberation about possible female authorship or contributions until almost 260 pages in. Despite this one point of irritation, the more I continued to delve into Winkler's detailed debates, the more I started vehemently discussing it with friends, family and colleagues. It got me thinking about how historical literature is taught. Whether you believe there was one author, be that Francis Bacon, Edward de Vere the 17^th Earl of Oxford, or latterly, Emilia Bassano, or whether you believe there was a tribe of contributors towards the work, you can't argue that Winkler's scholarly investigations leave the mind reeling.