1606: William Shakespeare and the Year of Lear review – an explosive mix

An absorbing study shows that radical change under James I galvanised Shakespeare

Shakespeare is the gift that goes on giving. Almost 400 years after his death in Stratford, aged 52, his life and work continue to mesmerise actors and scholars, screenwriters and playgoers, with that mysterious Shakespearean double helix: the bewitching braid of poetry and plot that has become part of our cultural DNA.

And then there’s the man. Part of Shakespeare’s fascination lies in that tantalising gap between life and work in which the plays are as resplendently present in the world as their author is shadowy and absent. This conundrum is also the source of many deranged fantasies – was it Marlowe, Oxford or Bacon? – about who wrote Shakespeare.

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