A fascinating insider account of researching, rehearsing and performing the part of King Lear for a major Royal Shakespeare Company production, Antony Sher's Year of the Mad King won the 2019 Theatre Book Prize awarded by the Society for Theatre Research.In 1982, rising actor Antony Sher played the Fool to Michael Gambon's King in the Royal Shakespeare Company's production of King Lear. Shortly after, he came back to Stratford to play Richard III – a breakthrough...

A classic of theatre writing, a unique insight into the creation of a landmark Shakespearian performance.Antony Sher's stunning performance for the Royal Shakespeare Company as Richard III on crutches – the so-called 'bottled spider' – won him both the Laurence Olivier and Evening Standard Awards for Best Actor. This book records – in the actor's own words and drawings – the making of this historic theatrical event.This edition of Year of the King is published on t...

'Antony Sher's insider journal is a brilliant exploded view of a great actor at work – modest and gifted, self-centred and selfless – a genius capable of transporting us backstage' Craig Raine, The Spectator (Books of the Year)Year of the Fat Knight is Antony Sher's account – splendidly supplemented by his own paintings and sketches – of researching, rehearsing and performing one of Shakespeare's best-known and most popular characters, Sir John Fa...

A remarkably candid autobiography, utterly involving and often startlingly revelatory, Antony Sher's Beside Myself is an inspiration to young actors and a treat for seasoned theatregoers.'I wish I'd read this book when I was starting out. Not only is Antony Sher one of the all-time greats of classical theatre, he also manages to be a writer of enormous skill and insight' David TennantActor, author, artist Antony Sher grew up in the Old South Africa...

A BBC Radio 3 full-cast drama by Stephen Wakelam on a period in the life of Shakespeare, ‘The Pattern of Painful Adventures’, originally broadcast in the ‘Drama on 3’ slot on 23 November 2008 and repeated on 25 April 2010. Business is going well, but the playwright urgently needs a collaborator for his latest play. His daughter is getting married. His brother has a sick child and is in need of a job. It is 1607 and Shakespeare's life is at a turning point. Starring Antony Sher as William S...

Shylock, a Jewish moneylender, agrees to lend Antonio, a Venetian merchant, three thousand ducats so that his friend Bassanio can afford to court his love, Portia. However, Shylock has one condition: should the loan go unpaid, he will be entitled to a pound of Antonio’s own flesh. Meanwhile in Belmont, according to the terms of her father’s will, Portia’s many suitors must choose correctly from three caskets. Bassanio arrives at Portia’s estate and they declare their love for one another b...

Selected readings and full-cast dramatisations from across the literary and science fiction of Iain BanksIain Banks, aka Iain M Banks, came to fame in 1984 with his transfixing debut The Wasp Factory, described as both ‘a work of unparalleled depravity’ and 'a masterpiece'. In 1993 he was acknowledged as one of the Best of Young British Writers, and his numerous bestselling books include The Crow Road, Complicity and the ‘Culture’ sci-fi ...

Nineteenth-century Europe, from Turin to Prague to Paris, abounds with the ghastly and the mysterious. Conspiracies rule history. Jesuits plot against Freemasons. Italian priests are strangled with their own intestines. French criminals plan bombings by day and celebrate black masses by night. Every nation has its own secret service, perpetrating forgeries, plots, and massacres. From the unification of Italy to the Paris Commune to the Dreyfus Affair to the notorious forgery The Protoc...

A 50th anniversary audiobook of Kerouac’s classic novel that defined a generationFew novels have had as profound an impact on American culture as On the Road. Pulsating with the rhythms of 1950s underground America, jazz, sex, illicit drugs, and the mystery and promise of the open road, Kerouac’s classic novel of freedom and longing defined what it meant to be “beat” and has inspired generations of writers, musicians, artists, poets, and seekers who cite t...

An edgy tale of mixed feelings and motherhood by the New York Times bestselling author of My Brilliant FriendLeda, a middle-aged divorcée, is alone for the first time in years after her two adult daughters leave home to live with their father in Toronto. Enjoying an unexpected sense of liberty, she heads to the Ionian coast for a vacation. But she soon finds herself intrigued by Nina, a young mother on the beach, eventually striking up a conversation with her....

Elegant, enigmatic Jay Gatsby yearns for his old love, the beautiful Daisy. But she is married to the insensitive if hugely successful Tom Buchanan, who won’t let her go despite having a mistress himself. In their wealthy haven, these beguiling lives are brought together by the innocent and entranced narrator, Nick until their decadent deceits spill into violence and tragedy. Part morality tale, part fairy tale, The Great Gatsby is the consummate novel of the Jazz Age. Its tenderness and p...

THE FIRST NOVEL IN LEE CHILD'S #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING JACK REACHER SERIES—NOW AN ORIGINAL SERIES ON PRIME VIDEO!“From its jolting opening scene to its fiery final confrontation, Killing Floor is irresistible.”—PeopleEx-military policeman Jack Reacher is a drifter. He’s just passing through Margrave, Georgia, and in less than an hour, he’s arrested for murder. Not much of a welcome. All Reacher knows is that he didn’t kill a...