boris johnson biography shakespeare

• Subscribe & get a FREE TNE MEGA cap
• Download our new app

Hello. It looks like you’re using an ad blocker that may prevent our website from working properly. To receive the best experience possible, please make sure any ad blockers are switched off, or add https://experience.tinypass.com to your trusted sites , and refresh the page.

If you have any questions or need help you can email us .

From Bard to worse: Boris Johnson’s hot take on Shakespeare

CHARLIE CONNELLY on what we can expect from Boris Johnson's much-discussed and long-delayed book on William Shakespeare

Charlie Connelly

I write this the morning after seeing the Changeling Theatre Company’s touring production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream performed outdoors in the grounds of a Kentish castle.

Golden evening sunlight, birdsong and the rustle of the wind in the trees were the perfect setting for a play whose scenes mostly play out in a forest, not to mention the open air and social-distancing presenting the audience with an ideal occasion to ease back into being part of a crowd again.

The play itself was magical, a production that transported us to a storybook forest with a healthy helping of RuPaul’s Drag Race thrown in, a fizzing, exuberant rendition that had the picnicking audience guffawing bits of scotch egg down their fleeces from the first scenes.

Wittily inserted references to Brexit and Covid that never felt gratuitous, a black woman in the roles of Hippolyta and Titania and a trans actor cartwheeling around the grass as an effervescent Puck made for a thoroughly modern production.

This Midsummer Night’s Dream showcased the arts in this country at its very best despite the challenges of a washed out 2020 and the company having to cram six months of rehearsals into three once lockdown restrictions were eased. The wait was more than worth it: here was a play and an occasion that was inclusive, celebratory and most of all terrific fun.

The ease with which contemporary asides were scattered throughout the performance partly illustrates why Shakespeare endures as Britain’s greatest literary figure.

As well as the company’s additions there was plenty in the original text to resonate with modern audiences. When during the second act Titania observes, “Therefore the moon, the governess of floods, pale in her anger, washes all the air; that rheumatic diseases do abound, and through this distemperature we see the seasons alter” a ripple of knowing glances spread among the camping chairs and tartan blankets.

Modern, positive, thought-provoking, joyous, escapist: this is why the glover’s son from Stratford-upon-Avon remains at the forefront of our national culture for all the right reasons.

Yet despite his enduring fame, now entering its fifth century, we know little about Shakespeare himself beyond what he left behind in the plays and sonnets themselves. Contemporary documentation is notoriously rare and there are whole periods of his life during which scholars can’t even be sure where he was, let alone what he was doing.

Nobody is certain exactly when each play was written and it’s unlikely the 37 we have represent all that he wrote for the stage. Even the spelling of his name is more down to custom than anything else as the handful of examples of Shakespeare’s signature that survive use several versions.

Even the familiar image of a bald man with neatly-trimmed facial hair was created after his death. He may have introduced more than 1,700 previously unknown words into the English language but William Shakespeare the man retains an enigmatic silence.

All of which present immense challenges for Shakespeare’s biographers. The few remaining primary sources have been consulted, pored over, interpreted and reinterpreted so many times there is nothing new to say about them, while every line of every play and poem has been probed and filleted for every scrap of nuance, context and subliminal reference. Without fresh evidence coming to light how much more is there to say about Shakespeare?

Nicholas Rowe is often credited with publishing the first biography of the playwright in 1709, although of his 8,000-word treatise on the Bard barely 1,000 are concerned with the story of his life. Since then Shakespeare has become a one-man publishing industry in his own right: a search of his name in the main catalogue at the British Library returns more than 16,000 items.

Short of the discovery behind an eave in an old house in Stratford-upon-Avon of a sheaf of ancient paper with ‘Bard Act To Follow: My Showbiz Life, by William Shakespeare’ on the front it’s difficult to make a convincing case for a new biography.

Which brings us to Boris Johnson. It’s been six years since the current prime minister’s book Shakespeare: The Riddle of Genius was announced by his publisher Hodder & Stoughton, who are understandably reticent about disclosing the size of Johnson’s advance.

Figures between £90,000 and £500,000 have been published in the media, both ends of which seem equally plausible. Even though it didn’t progress Churchill scholarship by one cigar’s length, his 2014 The Churchill Factor did well enough to ensure that a similar book would be worth a sizable advance for its high-profile author. There’s no doubt that a book about Shakespeare by Boris Johnson would sell in pretty decent quantities, no matter what a pile of Much Adoodoo he’s made of running the country.

Johnson’s Churchill book sold particularly well in America. Given how before the pandemic Stratford brimmed permanently with American tourists on Bardic pilgrimages it’s almost guaranteed a book on the subject by a man who has fostered an image of the quintessential bumbling English toff would be a big hit in the land of his birth.

The book was commissioned to appear in 2016, the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death, but as we know to our cost Johnson was busy with other things that year and publication was postponed. When he became prime minister in 2019 Hodder & Stoughton conceded that the book had been put off indefinitely, with Johnson himself stating that his ascendance to the political summit “means that I won’t be able to rapidly complete a book on Shakespeare that I have in preparation. I honestly say that will grieve me”.

Despite laying apparently dormant since, Shakespeare: The Riddle of Genius has refused to go away. Rumoured to be among Dominic Cummings’ carefully managed drip feed of alleged Johnsonian faux-pas was the reason the prime minister didn’t show up for the five consecutive COBRA meetings dealing with the Covid outbreak: he was busy writing his Shakespeare book.

Then last month the Fence magazine revealed that in the early stages of the project a number of Shakespeare specialists had been approached to assist Johnson with his research, answering questions from the author who would then write up their responses for the book.

The publishers would, it seemed, get at least part of their rumoured half-million quids’ worth from the quality of Johnson’s probing questions and the pizzazz and panache with which he would render the answers in print. All the academics who came forward had apparently turned down the chance to work on Shakespeare: The Riddle of Genius , meaning Johnson may have to do more of the heavy lifting than he might have anticipated if the book is ever going to see what light through yonder window breaks.

It’s easy to scoff at the idea of an author filleting other people’s work for their own book. It’s really easy when that author is Boris Johnson. Yet it’s not necessarily as heinous an act as it might sound. Most narrative non-fiction draws by necessity on research carried out by other people, which is why you’ll rarely read a biography that doesn’t append at least a bibliography, if not a full-blown section of numbered notes at the end of the book. A subject, any subject, can after all only be taken forward as a result of what’s come before.

A book cannot just be a rehash of previously published research, however, especially if that book comes with a half a million quid advance. An author must unearth new material or at least bring something new to the existing evidence to present an original perspective on the subject.

As long as Johnson absorbs his research and interprets it with original thinking and a freshness of expression then maybe there is a Shakespeare book in him. A personal take on the Bard might be enlightening, detailing what the plays mean to Boris Johnson, how Shakespeare has affected and influenced him.

While shadow arts minister in 2004 he revealed in an interview that he won the Shakespeare Prize at Eton and expressed a desire to play Othello – more of that kind of thing could lead to a worthwhile book. Just setting out what little we already know of Shakespeare’s life and rehashing the opinions of others in sub-Wodehousian prose with a scattering of Latin and Ancient Greek won’t be nearly enough to justify a reader shelling out twenty quid for their hardback.

The publishers were marketing the book as Johnson’s examination of Shakespeare’s genius “in a simple and readable way; in a way that gets to grips with what is really going on, what the characters are up to, what the point of it all is; and in a way that sets the man simply and intelligibly in the context of his time”.

One can only wonder at what Johnson thinks is “really going on” and what he believes “the point of it all is” when it comes to Shakespeare’s life and work. If he’s demonstrated anything as prime minister it’s that he’s not a man for introspection, reflection or particularly deep thinking.

The fact he can quote lines from Shakespeare from memory only suggests he developed an aptitude for rote learning at school and there’s nothing impressive about that.

I can reel off all the winners of the FA Cup from its inception in 1872 to 1990. Can I apply that to, say, writing a book on how it relates to the socio-economic conditions of different eras? No, I cannot, because storing that knowledge in my head doesn’t make me clever or insightful, it just shows I was a lonely kid with a well-thumbed copy of the Rothmans Football Yearbook . Knowing stuff isn’t enough. Filtering it through an original critical mind is what makes a book.

From what we know of the man it’s hard to imagine Johnson’s interpretation of Shakespeare being in any way groundbreaking, or even vaguely nuanced. When he saw Ben Whishaw as Hamlet at the Old Vic in the mid-2000s, for example, Johnson complained Whishaw “didn’t know his lines”. The example he quoted turned out to be a deliberate change by the director Trevor Nunn to suit the production that Johnson, the rote-learner, had assumed was an error.

Such limited intellectual curiosity and unwillingness to accept artistic interpretation doesn’t fill one with confidence that Johnson’s Shakespeare will be the outward-looking European who travelled widely, sought out and read plays in French and Italian for inspiration and in the later years of his life lodged with a family of Huguenot refugees in London’s Cripplegate.

That’s the Shakespeare I saw represented in the castle grounds. The Shakespeare whose ear was finely tuned to human nature with all its joys, flaws, kindnesses, challenges, betrayals, farces and fears, whose emotional intelligence allowed him to distil all the world’s comedy and tragedy into iambic pentameter in a way we recognise today.

The Shakespeare who can inspire a troupe of young actors, travelling as a company just as Shakespeare did, to add surgical masks and a forehead temperature gun to a fantasy about fairies and woodland magic written more than 400 years ago.

As Puck cartwheeled and backflipped through the golden evening sunshine there was a tangible communion between audience and players brought about through words written around the turn of the 17th century. The words are where Shakespeare remains alive, because he belongs to all of us.

Despite Johnson’s book title there is no riddle of his genius. It’s palpable and alive, deeply ingrained in the very best of our wide-ranging, inclusive culture.

FIVE GREAT BOOKS ABOUT SHAKESPEARE

Maggie O’Farrell (Tinder Press, £7.99)

The winner of the Women’s Prize for Fiction last year, O’Farrell’s account of Shakespeare’s life viewed through his family around the time of the death of their son Hamnet is a towering achievement. From Stratford to the Globe Theatre in London this is an outstanding conjuring of a very human Bard.

SHAKESPEARE: THE WORLD AS A STAGE

Bill Bryson (Harper, £8.99)

On the face of it Bill Bryson is no more qualified to write a book about Shakespeare than Boris Johnson, but the man best known for his travel writing produced a wise, informative and concise exploration of the man, his times and his work.

WHAT BLEST GENIUS: THE JUBILEE THAT MADE SHAKESPEARE

Andrew McConnell Scott (W.W. Norton, £16.99)

A beautifully written account of the three-day festival staged in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1769 organised by the actor David Garrick and attended by James Boswell and other luminaries of the time, the event that effectively elevated Shakespeare to the status of a national treasure.

THIS IS SHAKESPEARE: HOW TO READ THE WORLD’S GREATEST PLAYWRIGHT

Emma Smith (Pelican, £9.99)

Described by Alex Preston in the Observer as “the best introduction to the plays I’ve read, perhaps the best book on Shakespeare, full stop”, this is a thoroughly absorbing analysis of the Bard’s output by an Oxford professor of Shakespeare. Fresh, original and authoritative.

1599: THE YEAR THAT MADE SHAKESPEARE

James Shapiro (Faber & Faber, £10.99)

A groundbreaking book when first published in 2006, Shapiro finds his way into Shakespeare by sticking to the year in which Henry V , Julius Caesar , As You Like It and Hamlet were written and delving into the playwright and his world to extraordinary effect. Look out for Shapiro’s 1606: The Year of Lear , too

Most popular

Michel Barnier: a Macronic miscalculation

The promise Starmer should have broken

Trump’s holy war

The mystery of Robert Jenrick's baseball cap

How the Express keeps on digging

• Terms & Conditions
• Privacy Policy
• Subscribe – Gift
• Subscribe – Overseas
• Newsletters

© 2024 The New European

Biographers International Organization

• Newsletters
• Board of Directors
• Advisory Council
• Code of Conduct
• Statement on Fair Use
• Annual BIO Conference
• Biography Lab 2024
• Past Conferences
• Past Biography Labs
• The BIO Award
• The Plutarch Award
• The Hazel Rowley Prize
• The Frances “Frank” Rollin Fellowship
• The Robert and Ina Caro Research/Travel Fellowship
• The Chip Bishop Fellowship
• Editorial Excellence Award
• Biblio Award
• The Ray A. Shepard Service Award
• Become a BIO Member
• Members Area

British PM Sought Help Writing Shakespeare Biography

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson turned to an unnamed scholar to help with the writing of his biography of William Shakespeare, a project Johnson had committed to before his election in 2019. As reported in The Guardian , Johnson offered to pay the biographer, referred to as “one of the UK’s most eminent Shakespeare scholars,” to answer questions Johnson posed, which he would record. Johnson used a similar practice while writing his biography of Winston Churchill. The scholar turned down the offer, fearing Johnson wanted to “enlist Shakespeare as a Tory nationalist.” Before the revelation about Johnson’s request for editorial aid, the prime minister’s office denied the claim from his former aide, Dominic Cummings , that Johnson missed important meetings relating to the COVID-19 crisis to work on the Shakespeare biography. The book was originally scheduled to be released in 2016, and then in 2020, but its publisher, Hodder & Stoughton, does not have plans at present to publish it in the foreseeable future.

• BIO Conference

From the Editor Politics and Policy

Boris and the Bard: what Johnson could learn from Shakespeare

Member ratings

• Well argued: 27%
• Interesting points: 41%
• Agree with arguments: 20%

The big event in the Prime Minister’s week had nothing to do with parties, wallpaper or pandemics. His wife, Carrie, gave birth to their second child, a baby girl. Boris Johnson is now officially on paternity leave. This may give him a breather in which to take stock and advice. To whom should he turn?  

As usual, Shakespeare has le mot juste for his present predicament. “When troubles come,” Claudius says in Hamlet, Act IV,” they come not single spies but in battalions.” Boris may perforce have put his biography of the Bard on the back-burner, but he knows the works as well as any politician. This weekend, if he gets a quiet moment in between the red boxes and phone calls, while looking after little Wilfred or attending to Carrie and her newborn, the man in whom the country placed its trust just two years ago might do worse than to reread this most political of playwrights, as prophylaxis against the plots that are now proliferating. He may have need of such forewarning in the coming weeks and months.

Take, for example, Richard II. This was the play that in 1593 almost got its author hanged, drawn and quartered for sedition. As Robert Devereux, the Earl of Essex, mounted his attempted coup against Elizabeth I, one of his co-conspirators ordered Shakespeare’s company, the Lord Chamberlain’s men, to stage a special performance of Richard II as a signal for the uprising.

Shakespeare’s Bolingbroke is a far subtler regicide than the real rebel who sought to emulate him. So inept was Essex, indeed, that within two years he went from being the Queen’s favourite, via his calamitous campaign in Ireland, to reckless rebellion and finally to an ignominious end upon the scaffold. Bolingbroke, by contrast, never states openly his ambition to overthrow Richard II; he merely denounces the corruption at court and lets others do the dirty work. Having contrived to force Richard to acquiesce in his own abdication, the usurper proceeds to have the deposed monarch done away with — but, crucially, the deed must be deniable.

Bolingbroke, now Henry IV, lets it be known that he longs to be rid of the threat posed by the incarcerated prisoner at Pomfret Castle, repeatedly asking in front of witnesses: “Have I no friend will rid me of this living fear?” Sir Pierce of Exton takes the hint and murders Richard, but is then disowned and banished by Henry. Ironically, the most memorable passages in this disturbing play are those that celebrate monarchy and, of course, England — “this royal throne of kings, this scepter’d isle”.

Richard II is the first of a tetralogy of Shakespearean history plays, continuing with the two parts of Henry IV and Henry V — chronologically the first of the sequence of eight plays that ends with Richard III, although the latter was probably written several years before Richard II. Shakespeare’s understanding of politics evolved over the 1590s and when we compare his portraits of the two usurpers, Henry Bolingbroke is a far more complex character than the caricature villain Richard, Duke of Gloucester. In real life, the rivals who undermine and finally oust the dominant ruler do not usually advertise the fact and are quick to disclaim responsibility for the act of treason.  

For Boris in his hour of need, the question is: who would play the part of Bolingbroke in any plot to overthrow his leadership? He himself has played that part more than once: first by taking the helm of the Brexit campaign and thereby destroying David Cameron — though his bid for the succession was botched. Two years later he fatally weakened Theresa May’s premiership by resigning as Foreign Secretary, thereby making himself her chief rival and heir apparent.

Now Boris himself is threatened, with a major backbench rebellion likely next week over vaccine passports, a possible by-election débacle and rumours of a vote of no confidence in the New Year. How can he deflect or defuse such challenges to his authority? 

Here again, Shakespeare is the best guide. The ancient topos of hubris followed by nemesis is ubiquitous in his dramas, both histories and tragedies. But the one that perhaps bears the closest resemblance to Boris Johnson’s story is Antony and Cleopatra . Some will question the comparison with a man who, as he dies, still implores his lover to remember him as “the greatest prince o’ the world, the noblest”. How can one appeal to the better nature of a man who, in their eyes, possesses no virtues at all — who is, as his former lieutenant Dominic Cummings claims, a “shopping trolley smashing from one side of the aisle to the other”?

When I suggested in this column a few days ago that in order to survive “Partygate” the Prime Minister should apologise, instigate an inquiry and above all tell the truth, he actually did all these things. But this was not what struck some readers, including some of great eminence. What they objected to were the words “as a man of honour — which he is — Boris Johnson…”

I stand by those words. For all his flaws, this Prime Minister has a highly developed sense of honour. He has stood by friends and colleagues in adversity — not least Cummings himself — when it was hardly in his interest to do so. He has resigned on principle, taken on the British Establishment and the European Union, made bold decisions against the conventional wisdom but also defied his party base and even his former employer, the Daily Telegraph , when he judged it necessary.

Yes, he has been an execrable office manager, as the endless washing of Downing Street’s dirty linen in public demonstrates, but delegating too much rather than too little is a fault pardonable in a Prime Minister. In the battles that matter most to the electorate, he has shown leadership and even courage. As the accusations multiply under the media’s magnifying glass, it is easy to forget what has been accomplished: we have survived the worst domestic crisis in most of our lifetimes with an economy that is growing more robustly than most of our neighbours’.

Britain remains, as Liz Truss put it this week, “the greatest country on earth” — and under this Government, ministers are not afraid to say so. Anyone who doubts it should ask the millions who long to live here. If Boris Johnson is to be blamed for everything that has caused discontent, he must also be credited with a magnanimity, a grandeur and, yes, a charisma that all other contemporary politicians now strutting on the world stage lack.

So the comparison with Mark Antony is not entirely far-fetched — but that play is, of course, a tragedy, the tragedy of two extraordinary individuals who lose the world for love. If he is an Antony, is Carrie a Cleopatra? The day may come when she laments: “The soldier’s pole is fall’n; young boys and girls are level now with men; the odds is gone, and there is nothing left remarkable beneath the visiting moon.”

If Boris and Carrie are to avoid the fate of Antony and Cleopatra, they will perceive the present peril and spend at least some of their precious postnatal time together preparing to fight back against their enemies. The country will forgive a great deal in a leader as long as they still like him. Boris was never so popular as when he lay in hospital, suffering along with the rest. He needs to rediscover the stoicism that has sustained him in the past and cheerfully endure the seemingly overwhelming slings and arrows. As Antony says, comforting Cleopatra in distress: “Fortune knows we scorn her most when most she offers blows.”

Sponsored picks

Without bullying prevention initiatives, private schools do a great disservice to students in their care 

The transformation of the LIA is firmly underway but the next step we take is critical

How to innovate in business and embrace change

If you want to recruit unpaid sperm donors then play into masculine stereotypes

Latest articles, photo finish at the chess olympiad, will barnier clear up macron’s mess, beyond grenfell: how to fix the housing crisis , david lammy, joe biden and israel, filed under, you may also like, join now – it's free.

{{register.errors.names}}

What's this for?

{{register.errors.gender}}

{{register.errors.ageBracket}}

{{register.errors.email}}

{{register.errors.password}}

{{register.errors.tandc}}

Already have an account with TheArticle ? Sign in here .

Boris Johnson offered to pay for help writing Shakespeare biography, says scholar

Academic was asked to be available at short notice ‘when Johnson found space in his diary’, but turned the project down

One of the UK’s most eminent Shakespeare scholars has revealed that they were approached by a representative of Boris Johnson to help him write his very delayed biography of the Bard.

The book, titled Shakespeare: The Riddle of Genius, and Johnson’s failure to finish it, recently made its way back into the news after Downing Street was forced to deny rumours that the prime minister had missed important Cobra meetings during the pandemic in order to work on the manuscript.

In mid-2015 Johnson, who was then the London mayor, signed a deal with Hodder & Stoughton to write the book for a reported £500,000. Publication has been repeatedly pushed back, with Johnson saying in 2019 that being PM meant “that I won’t be able to rapidly complete a book on Shakespeare that I have in preparation. I honestly say that will grieve me.”

The Shakespeare academic, who did not wish to be named, told the Guardian they were contacted by an agent acting for Johnson in late 2015 and asked to attend briefing meetings with him, where the academic would “supply Mr Johnson (and a dictaphone) with answers to questions about Shakespeare”.

They were told Johnson had used the same method – of recording extensive sessions with an academic dictating, then rewording the responses – to complete his bestselling 2014 biography of Winston Churchill, The Churchill Factor .

“The originality and brilliance, his agent assured me, would lie in Mr Johnson’s choice of questions to ask and in the inimitable way in which he would write up the expert answers he received,” said the Shakespearean, who went on to decline the opportunity.

According to a recent report in The Fence’s newsletter , the historian Warren Dockter “acted as a sort of guide through the literature and evidence” for The Churchill Factor, but Johnson, a former journalist, was credited with having done “all the heavy lifting”. Johnson reportedly recorded himself “extemporising on scenes from Churchill’s life” early in the morning, sending draft chapters to Dockter by 5am for “fact-checking and review”. Dockter, who has been described as Johnson’s “research assistant” and assembled the book’s bibliography, is not credited in the book, but is thanked in the acknowledgments.

The leading Shakespearean said they had not been tempted to take on a similar role for Johnson’s tome on the Bard. “For one thing, the agent suggested that I would need to be perpetually available at short notice to come to meet Mr Johnson at points when he found space in his diary. The fact that I already have a full-time job and that I do it a long way from Westminster didn’t seem to have occurred to them,” they said.

Johnson’s politics did not help matters. “At the time Mr Johnson hadn’t yet betrayed his continent by choosing to advocate the UK’s departure from the EU for his own personal advantage, so he wasn’t quite as politically toxic as he is now; but I assumed he would be trying to enlist Shakespeare as a Tory nationalist, so the idea didn’t much appeal,” said the academic. “I suppose I might imaginably have tried one briefing out of curiosity, if the money had been huge, but even that wouldn’t have been very practicable.”

The Guardian approached a number of leading Shakespeareans this week to see if they had also been approached by Johnson or his representatives to work on the book. Most had not been contacted, but were somewhat scathing about the project’s prospects.

“Rather to my disappointment, I haven’t heard anything about this, directly or indirectly. Not stonewalling: I should be absolutely delighted to help puncture BJ’s undeserved reputation as a thinker,” said a second Shakespeare academic.

A third said that consulting with scholars was “a legitimate enough way of writing”, but hoped that Johnson “would acknowledge the assistance he got”.

“My feeling is that he’s got a perfect right to write a book about Shakespeare, and I feel that Johnson’s book shouldn’t be judged before it comes. But at the same time, it does sound from the rumours as if it’s going to be ghostwritten to a rather high extent,” they said.

Jonathan Bate, author of the biography The Genius of Shakespeare, had advice for Johnson: “Don’t waste everyone’s time with a sub-par biography based on secondhand research – write a more personal book about what Shakespeare has taught you about the important things in your life such as sex, ambition and betrayal. He has a lot to say about those great themes.”

Johnson’s book is now listed as due for publication in March 2022 by its US publisher Riverhead, although UK publisher said in 2019 that it has no plans to publish the book “for the foreseeable future”.

In a statement, a Hodder & Stoughton spokesperson said: “After the success of Boris Johnson’s The Churchill Factor, Hodder & Stoughton contracted him to write a book about Shakespeare, originally planning to tie in with the Shakespeare anniversary in 2016. When Boris Johnson became foreign secretary we agreed that we would delay publication until a more suitable time, and we have not scheduled the book to be released in the foreseeable future.”

A spokesperson for Johnson declined to comment.

• Boris Johnson
• William Shakespeare
• Biography books

Most viewed

• Work & Careers
• Life & Arts

Alas, poor Boris: a Shakespearean travesty

To read this article for free, register now.

Once registered, you can: • Read free articles • Get our Editor's Digest and other newsletters • Follow topics and set up personalised events • Access Alphaville: our popular markets and finance blog

Explore more offers.

Then $75 per month. Complete digital access to quality FT journalism. Cancel anytime during your trial.

FT Digital Edition

Today's FT newspaper for easy reading on any device. This does not include ft.com or FT App access.

• Global news & analysis
• Expert opinion

Standard Digital

Essential digital access to quality FT journalism on any device. Pay a year upfront and save 20%.

• FT App on Android & iOS
• FT Edit app
• FirstFT: the day's biggest stories
• 20+ curated newsletters
• Follow topics & set alerts with myFT
• FT Videos & Podcasts

Terms & Conditions apply

Explore our full range of subscriptions.

Why the ft.

See why over a million readers pay to read the Financial Times.

News | Diary

Boris Johnson’s delayed Shakespeare book: To be or not to be?

Boris Johnson announced a deal for his memoirs yesterday with Harper Collins. But what does it mean for his book on Shakespeare , now eight years overdue?

We hear Johnson is still planning on finishing the long-promised project. In 2015, Johnson agreed a rumoured £500,000 fee with rival publisher Hodder & Stoughton for a book on the bard. It went on hold as politics got in the way, though efforts were made to keep writing: it was reported that he’d asked Shakespeare scholars for help.

Johnson is reported to have got “seven figures” for his memoir. That’s more than his old Etonian rival, fellow ex-PM David Cameron, who’s said to have got £800,000 for a 2019 book, which was given to charity. Fees can vary: Tony Blair got £4.5m, while Sir Keir Starmer’s delayed book with Harper Collins netted just £18,000.

Waxing lyrical

Poet Anthony Johnson won the £25,000 TS Eliot Poetry Prize at the Wallace Collection last night. Joseph, who lectures at King’s College London, took the award for Sonnets With Albert, about his largely absent father. Collecting the money, Johnson spoke movingly of how precarious it is to be a poet, and urged for more respect for the form.

Where is Starmer? asks Mick Lynch

Union leader Mick Lynch told Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer to “stand with us” at a rally by campaign group Enough is Enough outside No 10 last night, protesting against a bill which will restrict the right to strike. “Where’s the Labour front bench?” Lynch asked Sir Keir: “Don’t be a vanilla politician in a manila suit”. Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana spoke, the latter then rushing to the Commons.

Living memorial for the late Queen

Hampstead Heath has got some new rather royal trees. Last weekend the City of London Corporation, which runs the heath, began planting 11 oaks, 11 elms and 11 apple and pear trees, as a “living memorial” to Queen Elizabeth II. The idea was first part of last year’s platinum jubilee, but the Queen died before saplings could be planted. The King agreed that it could become a memorial area.

Last night in town

Londoner’s diary 17th january 2023.

Star Trek ’s George Takei was in London last night launching his new musical, Allegiance, set in a camp for Japanese-Americans in WWII. Stars Aynrand Ferrer and Telly Leung went too. New Love Island host Maya Jama was back in London to watch the first episode with friends, who served ‘Casa Amour’ cocktails. Presenter Reggie Yates went to the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain Awards with host Rachel Parris. And Victoria Beckham used herself as a model, doing a fitting for her label’s summer collection.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in

A Tale Told by an Idiot: Exclusive Extracts from Boris Johnson’s Book on Shakespeare

Otto english has procured an advanced copy of the prime minister’s book on the great bard.

Your support matters:

Sign up to emails

Subscribe to Byline Times

SHARE THIS:

A Tale Told by an Idiot Exclusive Extracts from Boris Johnson’s Biography of Shakespeare

It’s 2015 and the good folks at Hodder and Stoughton have offered me a £500,000 advance to write a book called William Shakespeare: the riddle of genius.

I’m only too happy to oblige.

After all, I don’t have much on – apart from being Mayor of London, MP for Uxbridge, a highly paid Telegraph columnist, a father of five, or six, or seven children .. and a part-time student at the Arcuri Academy of Technology. 

How hard can it be to write a biography of the greatest literary genius in British history? 

Get some chap to bash out a crib sheet, toss in some references to cod pieces, slam it in the laptop and before you can say ‘Macduff’s your uncle’ – book done.

William Shakespeare. Actor. Playwright. Quill botherer. Legend.

Shakey was born in Stratford in 1564 but we don’t know the exact date. 

In fact – it turns out we know very few biographical details of Shakespeare at all. There are just seventy, yes folks SEVENTY, solid facts about the life of Brainy Bill. And those facts are mostly very dull details about wills and beds and how he died of a fever because some chump hadn’t closed the taverns in a pandemic.

We do know that he had to get married because he got Anne Hathaway preggers (keep your Johnson in your tights Bill – take it from me!) but that’s pretty much it!

So quite a job for any biographers out there trying to…. er… write an interesting book about the life of William Shakespeare…. and the whole riddle thing…

Seventy facts. 

(Note to Ed. Perhaps put some pictures in here of me as Henry Vth taking on a French knight who looks a bit like Jeremy Corbyn?*)

*Perhaps you as Hamlet with Dom as Yorick (see above) – Ed

“The play is the thing!” 

We may know very little of the life of the Willster, but the old Sparks notes in the attic, can tell us a lot about his plays. 

In doing so we discover that he was awfully keen on sequels.

Of course, many great men in history have forged legends by trotting out the same tired ideas over and over again and Big W was no exception. 

Some do it with bridges, Shakey did it with kings called Henry. 

There are almost as many ‘Henry plays’ (7) as there are Police Academy films (8) and while the Bard’s works lack the complexity of masterpieces like ‘Citizens on Patrol’ many come a close second… or third.

I can’t claim to have read all 37 Shakespeare plays, but I have most definitely read most of the titles in the bibliography on Wikipedia. 

Shakey’s most famous characters make superb role models. 

Take Macbeth , who murders a couple of dear old friends and starts a violent civil war all to get the crown he craves and bloody well deserves frankly! 

Inspirational stuff.

Then there’s Hamlet . Facing a spot of bother with the whole rotten in the state of Denmark thing, the prince chases after a young woman, cracks inappropriate jokes and dithers – while all about him people drop dead.

They call it a tragedy! I call it a life manual.

Finally, there’s Othello in which, (as I remember it) – the clever old king sees off his key adviser, Iago, after the chap gets ideas above his station and starts interfering in his relationship with Desdemona. Sanity is restored after Iago is sacked and everyone lives happily ever after. 

(Note to Ed. Please check how it ends. Currently busy playing Fortnight with Gavin Williamson)

One great failing of Shakespeare’s work is that none of them was a musical. 

Titus Andronicus would have been much enlivened by a good comic number. King Lear is crying out for a chorus line. And who wouldn’t want to see the title characters of Antony and Cleopatra doing a jaunty take on the Bangles hit ‘walk like an Egyptian’ before killing themselves with an asp and a dagger?

(Note to Ed. Carrie has asked me to get something in about dolphins. Sought to explain it’s not that sort of book but she’s very insistent.)

Oddly, there are a mere two references to dolphins in Shakespeare’s works. Although to be fair, mass trawling and the tuna canning industry were then in their infancy so perhaps it wasn’t as high up the agenda as it is today. I feel quite certain that if William were alive today, he would be doing everything in his power to help us save these wonderful animals and more – that he would want us to make a success of trade with Australia.    

Some chumps have suggested that Shakespeare didn’t write the plays. That he actually got Marlowe to put in the hours on his behalf, while Bill swanned about the place, playing Fortnight… or more likely gin rummy… with William Kemp. 

The idea that some lazy, entitled, nincompoop, might not put the hours in, is frankly an insult to all the great men of history. Including me. So let us move swiftly on.

So, what have we learned about the ‘riddle of Shakespeare’? 

Nothing. Absolutely nothing at all. But the “advance was always the thing wherein I would pay for the holiday in the Caribbean.” 

And the school fees. 

And possibly a roll or two of wallpaper.

Exit pursued by Michael Gove

This article was filed under

• Biographies & Memoirs
• Arts & Literature

Sorry, there was a problem.

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required .

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

Image Unavailable

• To view this video download Flash Player

Follow the author

Shakespeare: The Riddle of Genius Paperback

• Language English
• Publisher Hodder Paperback
• Dimensions 7.99 x 10 x 1.85 inches
• ISBN-10 1473625858
• ISBN-13 978-1473625853
• See all details

Product details

• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1473625858
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1473625853
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.11 pounds
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 7.99 x 10 x 1.85 inches

About the author

Boris johnson.

Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more

Customer reviews

• 5 star 4 star 3 star 2 star 1 star 5 star 100% 0% 0% 0% 0% 100%
• 5 star 4 star 3 star 2 star 1 star 4 star 100% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0%
• 5 star 4 star 3 star 2 star 1 star 3 star 100% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0%
• 5 star 4 star 3 star 2 star 1 star 2 star 100% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0%
• 5 star 4 star 3 star 2 star 1 star 1 star 100% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0%

Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.

To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.

• Sort reviews by Top reviews Most recent Top reviews

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. please try again later..

• About Amazon
• Investor Relations
• Amazon Devices
• Amazon Science
• Sell products on Amazon
• Sell on Amazon Business
• Sell apps on Amazon
• Become an Affiliate
• Advertise Your Products
• Self-Publish with Us
• Host an Amazon Hub
• › See More Make Money with Us
• Amazon Business Card
• Shop with Points
• Reload Your Balance
• Amazon Currency Converter
• Amazon and COVID-19
• Your Account
• Your Orders
• Shipping Rates & Policies
• Returns & Replacements
• Manage Your Content and Devices

• Conditions of Use
• Privacy Notice
• Consumer Health Data Privacy Disclosure
• Your Ads Privacy Choices

Dominic Cummings claims Boris Johnson was writing Shakespeare book instead of dealing with COVID

The PM's former chief of staff has made the first on-record claim Boris Johnson was concentrating on his book rather than important issues.

Political reporter @alixculbertson

Friday 12 November 2021 21:27, UK

Boris Johnson's ex-adviser Dominic Cummings has claimed the prime minister was writing a book about Shakespeare instead of visiting flood victims and dealing with the impending COVID pandemic.

The PM agreed to write Shakespeare: The Riddle of Genius in 2015 when he was mayor of London but he has struggled to find time to write it after being appointed foreign secretary the following year and then PM in 2019.

There were rumours earlier this year Mr Cummings , who resigned last November, was going to use an appearance before MPs in May to claim Mr Johnson was working on his Shakespeare biography instead of tackling the impending pandemic last year.

At the time, Mr Johnson's spokesman denied the PM was focusing on the book in January and February 2020 but did not deny he has worked on the book, for which he received an £88,000 advance, since becoming prime minister.

But now, in the first on-record claim, Mr Cummings has said the PM asked if he could spend time writing his book in January 2020 and said he was writing it in February while dismissing COVID-19 as "the new swine flu".

Writing on his blog, Mr Cummings said: "One morning in mid-January he [Boris Johnson] called me into his study.

"'Dom, I want to run something by you. Do you think it's ok if I spend a lot of time writing my Shakespeare book?'

More on Boris Johnson

Tory leadership contest: Robert Jenrick would be 'pleased' to have Boris Johnson in his shadow cabinet

Former PM Johnson sounded out about Telegraph role

Boris Johnson meets Donald Trump to talk Ukraine

Related Topics:

• Boris Johnson
• Coronavirus
• Dominic Cummings
• Storm Dennis
• William Shakespeare

"What do you mean?

"'This f***ing divorce, very expensive. And this job. It's like getting up every morning pulling a 747 down the runway. [Pause] I love writing, I love it, I want to write my Shakespeare book'.

"I think people expect you to be doing the PM's job, I wouldn't talk to people about this if I were you..."

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

Mr Cummings also said within a month of the December 2019 election Mr Johnson was "bored with the PM job and wanted to get back to what he loves while shaking down the publishers for some more cash".

And he claimed that a month before the first lockdown, Mr Johnson was writing his book at Chevening House, the grace and favour 115-room Kent mansion usually saved for the foreign secretary while the PM's country house, Chequers, was being repaired.

"In February, as COVID spread, he was in Chevening writing about Shakespeare and messaging No10 that COVID was 'the new swine flu'," Mr Cummings claimed.

The PM was widely criticised at the time for being at Chevening for 12 days instead of visiting flood victims of Storm Dennis or holding a COBRA emergency meeting on the storm.

Mr Johnson's allies have continued to defend him, saying he has not submitted any work to his publisher Hodder and Stoughton during his time at Number 10.

But his disappearance from public view for nearly two weeks in February and his failure to attend five COBRA meetings in January and February 2020 have added to the mystery.

Downing Street said at the time the meetings were chaired by senior ministers and this arrangement was not unusual.

Mr Cummings has written about the book as he addressed Tory MPs coming under criticism for having second jobs.

He added: "WTF is he [Mr Johnson] having a go at MPs, given all his own outside earnings - and attempted outside earnings and illegal secret donations, while he's supposed to be pretending to be PM?!"

Select your cookie preferences

We use cookies and similar tools that are necessary to enable you to make purchases, to enhance your shopping experiences and to provide our services, as detailed in our Cookie notice . We also use these cookies to understand how customers use our services (for example, by measuring site visits) so we can make improvements.

If you agree, we'll also use cookies to complement your shopping experience across the Amazon stores as described in our Cookie notice . Your choice applies to using first-party and third-party advertising cookies on this service. Cookies store or access standard device information such as a unique identifier. The 96 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products. Click "Decline" to reject, or "Customise" to make more detailed advertising choices, or learn more. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences , as described in the Cookie notice. To learn more about how and for what purposes Amazon uses personal information (such as Amazon Store order history), please visit our Privacy notice .

• Film, Television & Music
• Actors & Entertainers

Sorry, there was a problem.

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet or computer – no Kindle device required .

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

Image Unavailable

• To view this video download Flash Player

Follow the author

Untitled Paperback – 30 Dec. 2021

Shakespeare is the true British icon - he is still the most performed, the most translated, the most venerated playwright in history, and a man whose reputation, if anything, is in the ascendant. No one has resolved so many truths about the human heart, or so brilliantly debated our psychological and political predicaments. No author has ever produced such astonishing female characters, perfected comic language so dazzlingly, or taught us as much about politics as William Shakespeare. Boris Johnson explains Shakespeare's genius in a simple and readable way; in a way that gets to grips with what is really going on, what the characters are up to, what the point of it all is; and in a way that sets the man simply and intelligibly in the context of his time. He explores not only the origin of Shakespeare's genius, but also the nature of his genius. If Shakespeare is the greatest ever, then of what exactly does his greatness consist? 'What makes Shakespeare Shakespeare? That, as the man once said, is the question.'

• Print length 432 pages
• Language English
• Publisher Hodder Paperback
• Publication date 30 Dec. 2021
• Dimensions 20.3 x 25.4 x 4.7 cm
• ISBN-10 1473625858
• ISBN-13 978-1473625853
• See all details

Product description

About the author, product details.

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Hodder Paperback (30 Dec. 2021)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 432 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1473625858
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1473625853
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 20.3 x 25.4 x 4.7 cm

About the author

Boris johnson.

Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more

Customer reviews

• 5 star 4 star 3 star 2 star 1 star 5 star 100% 0% 0% 0% 0% 100%
• 5 star 4 star 3 star 2 star 1 star 4 star 100% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0%
• 5 star 4 star 3 star 2 star 1 star 3 star 100% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0%
• 5 star 4 star 3 star 2 star 1 star 2 star 100% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0%
• 5 star 4 star 3 star 2 star 1 star 1 star 100% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0%

Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings, help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.

To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyses reviews to verify trustworthiness.

• Sort reviews by Top reviews Most recent Top reviews

Top review from United Kingdom

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. please try again later..

• UK Modern Slavery Statement
• Amazon Science
• Sell on Amazon
• Sell on Amazon Business
• Sell on Amazon Handmade
• Associates Programme
• Fulfilment by Amazon
• Seller Fulfilled Prime
• Advertise Your Products
• Independently Publish with Us
• Host an Amazon Hub
• › See More Make Money with Us
• The Amazon Barclaycard
• Credit Card
• Amazon Money Store
• Amazon Currency Converter
• Payment Methods Help
• Shop with Points
• Top Up Your Account
• Top Up Your Account in Store
• COVID-19 and Amazon
• Track Packages or View Orders
• Delivery Rates & Policies
• Returns & Replacements
• Manage Your Content and Devices
• Amazon Mobile App
• Customer Service
• Accessibility

• Conditions of Use & Sale
• Privacy Notice
• Cookies Notice
• Interest-Based Ads Notice

Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

UK Edition Change

• UK Politics
• News Videos
• Paris 2024 Olympics
• Rugby Union
• Sport Videos
• John Rentoul
• Mary Dejevsky
• Andrew Grice
• Sean O’Grady
• Photography
• Theatre & Dance
• Culture Videos
• Fitness & Wellbeing
• Food & Drink
• Health & Families
• Royal Family
• Electric Vehicles
• Car Insurance Deals
• Lifestyle Videos
• Hotel Reviews
• News & Advice
• Simon Calder
• Australia & New Zealand
• South America
• C. America & Caribbean
• Middle East
• Politics Explained
• News Analysis
• Today’s Edition
• Home & Garden
• Broadband deals
• Fashion & Beauty
• Travel & Outdoors
• Sports & Fitness
• Climate 100
• Sustainable Living
• Climate Videos
• Solar Panels
• Behind The Headlines
• On The Ground
• Decomplicated
• You Ask The Questions
• Binge Watch
• Travel Smart
• Watch on your TV
• Crosswords & Puzzles
• Most Commented
• Newsletters
• Ask Me Anything
• Virtual Events
• Wine Offers
• Betting Sites

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in Please refresh your browser to be logged in

Boris Johnson 'signs £500k book deal' to write Shakespeare biography

The reported deal is said to be worth seven times his mp's salary, article bookmarked.

Find your bookmarks in your Independent Premium section, under my profile

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails

Sign up to our free breaking news emails, thanks for signing up to the breaking news email.

London Mayor and recently elected MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip Boris Johnson has signed a £500,000 book deal to write a biography about Shakespeare.

Johnson, whose best-selling biography of Churchill was lauded by critics last year, will write the book in time for a 2016 release to mark the 400th anniversary of the Bard’s death.

The lucrative £500,000 book deal from publishing house Hodder is worth seven times his £74,000 MP’s salary, according to The Sunday Times .

Johnson’s decision to write the biography while serving as an MP and Mayor of London in addition to writing a column for The Telegraph has led to doubts about his commitment to his political work.

When asked by The Independent whether he was happy with his new role as an MP, he replied: “Well, it’s not exactly a job, is it?” and later described his position as a “zero-hours contract”.

Johnson, who will remain Mayor of London until 2016, had been thought to be a forerunner to challenge David Cameron to become the next Prime Minister, but appears to be taking a back seat in the House of Commons.

The biography will be the 12th book the politician has written, following the success of The Churchill Factor: How One Man Made History, which sold more than 160,000 hard back copies since its release in October last year.

Johnson’s Shakespeare biography will compete in a crowded market place to mark the 400th anniversary of the Bard's death, rivalling books by scholars including James Shapiro, Stanley Wells and Paul Edmondson, as well as a novelised version of The Winter’s Tale from Jeanette Winterson.

The 51-year-old currently earns £47,970 for his job as London Mayor (cut from £143,000 since he became an MP), £74,000 as an MP and £275,000 for his column in The Daily Telegraph .

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Subscribe to Independent Premium to bookmark this article

Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Premium subscription today.

New to The Independent?

Or if you would prefer:

Hi {{indy.fullName}}

• My Independent Premium
• Account details
• Help centre

Boris Johnson

Who Is Boris Johnson?

After beginning his career as a journalist, Boris Johnson became a prominent editor while simultaneously building his political base as a Conservative MP. A surprise winner of London's mayoral race in 2008, the famously disheveled politician championed the "Leave" movement of the Brexit referendum in 2016 before spending two years as foreign secretary. Elevated to prime minister in 2019, Johnson engineered the U.K.'s break from the European Union but was criticized for breaking Covid-19 lockdown rules and resigned his premiership in July 2022.

How Old Is Boris Johnson?

Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson was born in New York City on June 19, 1964.

Parents and Siblings

Johnson is the oldest of four children born to dad Stanley , a politician, environmentalist and author, and mom Charlotte , a painter.

His sister, Rachel , went on to earn acclaim as a journalist; his middle brother, Jo, became a member of Parliament and government minister; and his youngest brother, Leo, embarked on a career in finance. Johnson also has two half-siblings, Maximilian and Julia, from Stanley's second marriage.

Early Years and Education

Thanks to his father's varied professional pursuits, Johnson moved 32 times by age 14. The family's travels included stops in London, where Johnson attended Primrose Hill Primary School, and Brussels, where he was enrolled at the European School.

Affected by a medical condition known as "glue ear," which left him partially deaf until around age eight, Johnson was said to be a quiet, studious boy. He began emerging from his shell after being sent away to Ashdown House , a boarding school in East Sussex, where he studied ancient Greek and Latin and developed a love for rugby.

At Eton College, Johnson dropped his first name and honed a more extroverted personality. He headed the debate society, was named captain of school and joined the exclusive "Pop" club, though he also rankled faculty to the point where one housemaster criticized his "disgracefully cavalier attitude."

After a gap year spent teaching in Australia, Johnson returned to England to study classics at the University of Oxford's Balliol College. A standout among fellow future stars, he became president of the Oxford Union, co-edited the satirical publication Tributary and joined the Bullingdon Club before earning an upper second-class degree in 1987.

Journalist and Politician

Johnson began his journalism career as a graduate trainee for The Times but was fired the following year after attributing a fabricated quote to his godfather, renowned academic Colin Lucas.

Landing on his feet as the Brussels correspondent for The Daily Telegraph , Johnson carved out a reputation for his exaggerated but entertaining critiques of the European Commission. He later likened the experience to "chucking these rocks over the garden wall and [listening] to this amazing crash from the greenhouse next door over in England."

Johnson served as the Telegraph 's chief political columnist and an assistant editor from 1994-99 and then as editor of The Spectator , a right-wing magazine, until 2005. During this time, he also began writing a regular automotive column for GQ and saw his celebrity grow via well-received appearances on the popular quiz show "Have I Got News for You."

Johnson also launched his political career as a Conservative MP from Henley, Oxfordshire, in 2001. Forced from his position as party vice-chair and shadow arts minister after lying about an affair in 2004, he rebounded to win reelection the following year and became shadow higher education minister under Conservative leader David Cameron.

Mayor of London

Named the Tory candidate for London mayor in 2007, Johnson earned his first taste of international attention for his disheveled appearance and energetic but bumbling ways. He ultimately defeated the Labour incumbent, Ken Livingstone, to become the city's second elected mayor in 2008.

Recovering from a chaotic start in which several top aides resigned, Johnson introduced the "Boris bikes" cycle-sharing program in 2010 and the new-and-improved "Boris bus" fleet in early 2012.

Although he was criticized for his response to the 2011 London riots, he held on to defeat Livingstone and earn a second term in office in 2012.

Johnson subsequently saw the completion of the ArcelorMittal Orbit observation tower and Emirates Air Line cable cars in time for the 2012 London Olympics, which provided the lasting image of the mayor stuck on a zip line above Victoria Park. Other ambitious projects, such as the "Boris island" airport and garden bridge over the River Thames, never came to fruition despite his efforts.

Brexit Campaign

Along with taking on another elected post as MP of Uxbridge and South Ruislip in 2015, Johnson spent his final weeks as mayor engaged in the contentious issue of Brexit, a referendum on whether to continue the United Kingdom’s membership in the European Union.

Initially unsure which side to take, Johnson eventually emerged as the face of the "Leave" campaign, in direct opposition to Prime Minister Cameron. His populist message for an independent U.K. resonated with the public, resulting in the electorate's historic vote to leave the E.U. on June 23, 2016.

Johnson subsequently launched a bid to replace Cameron as the Conservative leader but bowed out by the end of June, paving the way for Theresa May to take over as prime minister.

Foreign Secretary

Named May's secretary of state for foreign and Commonwealth affairs in July 2016, Johnson soon ran into trouble with his off-the-cuff commentary. After initially defending the sale of arms to Saudi Arabia, he accused the Middle Eastern country of "puppeteering and playing proxy wars." Later, his incorrect assessment that a British-Iranian national was "teaching" when arrested for spying in Iran reportedly bolstered the accusations that she was spreading propaganda.

Johnson dutifully represented the country's interests in rebuking the alleged Russian use of a deadly nerve agent and supporting the Iran nuclear deal. But he also feuded with his boss over her attempts to negotiate the U.K.'s break from the E.U. Dismayed by the proposed compromises, Johnson stepped down as foreign secretary in July 2018.

U.K. Prime Minister

After May resigned in May 2019 over an inability to forge a Brexit agreement, Johnson again sought control of the party leadership. This time, he emerged victorious after promising to pull out of the E.U. by October 31, regardless of whether or not a deal was in place, and took over as prime minister on July 24, 2019.

Johnson quickly found himself at odds with lawmakers after asking Queen Elizabeth II to suspend Parliament until mid-October, with critics charging that he was narrowing the opportunity for opposition to his Brexit plans. Parliament subsequently passed a bill that required the PM to request an extension for the U.K.'s departure by October 19 if he was unable to broker an agreement with the E.U. or earn the necessary consent for a no-deal Brexit.

While Johnson was forced to seek the extension, he was successful in bringing his case to the people with a snap election. Riding the slogan "get Brexit done," the Conservative Party proved the decisive winner in the December 2019 general election, giving Johnson time to fine-tune the minutiae of a final deal after the country's formal exit from the E.U. on January 31, 2020.

Meanwhile, a new crisis emerged that year with the rapid onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. Initially reluctant to curb the flow of business and public interaction, Johnson finally announced the closure of stores and restaurants on March 20 before imposing strict lockdown measures a few days later. He then landed in intensive care after contracting the virus at the end of the month.

Although the U.K. became the first Western nation to greenlight a vaccine in December 2020, it also became the first European nation to surpass 100,000 casualties from the illness in January 2021. Later that year, a report slammed the " public health failures " in the country brought about by governmental delays in enacting social distancing guidelines.

Johnson’s problems compounded by April 2022 when he was fined for breaking lockdown rules. The following month, he was named a primary culprit in a series of lockdown-defying social gatherings among government employees, a scandal dubbed " Partygate ."

After he survived a no-confidence vote from party members in June, the revelation that Johnson was aware of sexual misconduct allegations against deputy chief whip Chris Pincher triggered a wave of government resignations headlined by Chancellor Rishi Sunak and Health Secretary Sajid Javid. On July 7, 2022, Johnson bowed to the pressure to resign as prime minister .

Although former Foreign Secretary Liz Truss took over as party leader and premier, she, too, resigned less than two months later after several public missteps. Initially interested in reclaiming the job, Johnson withdrew his name from consideration shortly before Sunak was announced as the new PM on October 24, 2022.

Johnson has authored several books, dating back to his tales from the campaign trail with Friends, Voters, Countrymen (2001). Other works include the novel Seventy-Two Virgins (2003); an examination of antiquity with The Dream of Rome (2006); a book of poetry and illustrations with The Perils of the Pushy Parents (2007); and the biography The Churchill Factor (2014).

Wives and Children

Johnson has been married three times and fathered seven children. After meeting Allegra Mostyn-Owen at Oxford, the two were married in 1987 before having the union annulled in 1993. That year Johnson wed lawyer Marina Wheeler, with whom he had daughters Lara and Cassia and sons Milo and Theodore.

Following the revelation that he had another daughter, Stephanie, with journalist Helen MacIntyre, Johnson and Wheeler divorced in 2018. The prime minister then married public relations executive Carrie Symonds in 2021 and added to his family with son Wilfred and daughter Romy.

QUICK FACTS

• Birth Year: 1964
• Birth date: June 19, 1964
• Best Known For: Conservative British politician Boris Johnson became the second elected mayor of London before overseeing the U.K.'s departure from the European Union as prime minister.
• Writing and Publishing
• Astrological Sign: Gemini
• University of Oxford, Balliol College
• Interesting Facts
• Johnson was the third published novelist to become U.K. prime minister, after Benjamin Disraeli and Winston Churchill.
• Occupations
• Political Figure

We strive for accuracy and fairness.If you see something that doesn't look right, contact us !

CITATION INFORMATION

• Article Title: Boris Johnson Biography
• Author: Biography.com Editors
• Website Name: The Biography.com website
• Url: https://www.biography.com/political-figure/boris-johnson
• Access Date:
• Publisher: A&E; Television Networks
• Last Updated: December 1, 2022
• Original Published Date: December 1, 2022
• I want you to know how sad I am to be giving up the best job in the world. But them's the breaks.
• I want to have my cake and eat it.
• All romantics need the mortar of cynicism to hold themselves up.
• People live by narrative, human beings are creatures of the imagination.

Famous Political Figures

Ronald Reagan

How Ronald Reagan Went from Movies to Politics

Mark Antony

Julius Caesar

Kamala Harris

Get to Know Kamala Harris' 2 Stepchildren

What Is Vice President Kamala Harris’ Religion?

Teddy Roosevelt’s Stolen Watch Recovered by FBI

Franklin D. Roosevelt

The Founding Fathers: What Were They Really Like?

Popular Topics

Publishing Calendar

Books from Czechia

Frezzato to judge Bath Children’s Novel Award  

Bath Publishing appoints Booksource as new distributor after Marston collapse

ALCS calls on government to go further and protect 'mass violation' of creatives' rights following AI treaty

Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book page proofs allocated to Cambridge University Library

Wiley confirms it is seeking further generative AI partnerships as its quarterly revenue rises to £296m

• Most Viewed
• Most Commented

Neil Gaiman accused of sexual assault by fifth woman

Wiley set to earn $44m from AI rights deals, confirms 'no opt-out' for authors

Jemma McDonagh launches her own agency

Amazing Grace: Hannah Grace's Daydream debuts in the top spot

Black Crow Books: new horror publisher aims to open up 'booming' genre to everyone

Latest issue, 6th september 2024.

• Lead Story: Irish bestsellers
• Trade Interviews: Nine Bean Rows, The O'Brien Press & The Gutter Bookshop
• Author Interviews: Catherine Airey & Blessing Musariri
• New Titles: Fiction Preview: December 2024
• Discover: October 2024

Jamie Smart's Bunny vs Monkey book series gets audio deal with Bolinda

Allison & Busby scoops 'tense, fast-paced' crime novel from Daniel Sellers in two-book deal

Faber acquires Lauren Working's 'perspective-shifting history of the Renaissance' in seven-way auction

HarperNonFiction snags Naga Munchetty's book about the 'women's health crisis'

Subscribe today.

William Shakespeare Biography

This page offers a complete biography of Shakespeare, from birth to death. Read the whole William Shakespeare biography , or skip to the section of Shakespeare’s life you’re most interested in:

Shakespeare’s Birth and Family Shakespeare’s Childhood & Education Shakespeare’s Marriage & Children Shakespeare’s Lost Years Shakespeare’s London Years Shakespeare’s Retirement Shakespeare’s Death

A Very Brief William Shakespeare Biography

• Parents: John Shakespeare & Mary Shakespeare (nee Arden).
• Date of Birth: Generally accepted as 23rd April 1564. Shakespeare was baptised on 26th April, 1564.
• Wife: Anne Hathaway (married 1582).
• Children : Susanna (born 1583), Hamnet and Judith (twins, born 1585).
• Resided: Born and raised in Stratford-Upon-Avon. Prime working years spent away from family in London. Returned to family in Stratford-Upon-Avon upon retirement.
• Career: Writer, actor, theatre owner and producer.
• Body of Work : 37 plays. 149 sonnets. 2 long narrative poems.
• Died: 23 April 1616, aged 52. Buried at Holy Trinity Church in Stratford-upon-Avon . Read 50 fun facts about Shakespeare

The Chandos portrait of William Shakespeare

Shakespeare’s Birth and Family

Shakespeare was the third of the eight children born to John and Mary Shakespeare of Stratford-upon-Avon on April 23rd 1564.

John Shakespeare ran his own business as a glove maker and a wool dealer. He held local public positions and was a bailiff (like a mayor) in the town council. After 1567 it is alleged that he was in financial difficulties. In 1557 John married Mary Arden who had no formal education at all.  John and Mary had lost two daughters prior to William’s birth, leaving him as their oldest surviving child. William’s younger siblings were Gilbert (born in 1566), Joan (1569), Anne (1571), Richard (1574) and Edmund (1580). Anne died at the age of eight, but William’s four other younger siblings lived into adulthoods.

Shakespeare’s family lived in a townhouse on Henley Street in the centre of Stratford-Upon-Avon. John used one of his downstairs rooms as a workshop for his glove business, displaying his gloves on his house windowsill for passers-by to peruse and buy. Read more about Shakespeare’s birthplace .

Shakespeare’s family home on Henley Street, Stratford-upon-Avon

Shakespeare’s Childhood and Education

During Shakespeare’s time it was typical for boys to start their education at grammar school at seven and be taught a curriculum with Latin at is centre. Children would be expected to learn long passages of prose and poetry. In addition, children were drilled in grammar, logic, rhetoric, arithmetic and astronomy. Children of public officials received free tuition. Girls did not receive a school education.

It is likely that William lived with his family and was taught according to the above principles at his local grammar school. This was called The King’s New School , and was just a five-minute walk from his home on Henley Street. When William was fourteen his father lost his public position, so it’s  probable that William left school and joined his father in business, making and selling gloves. There is no record of Shakespeare going to university. His contemporary Christopher Marlowe did go to Cambridge, but most playwrights, including Ben Johnson , did not.

To get a feel for Shakespeare’s childhood it’s interesting to note that when Shakespeare was a child water was not clean enough to drink. Attitudes towards hygiene differed hugley to our modern understanding of cleanliness., and tt’s believed that in Tudor times bathing occurred only once a year – probably in May. After the water had been fetched it would be boiled and poured into a large barrel or tub. The father bathed first, followed by any other men who lived in the house, then the women, and finally the children, in order of their age. Talking of such issues, the toilet facilities were quite basic with a simple pewter chamber-pot (a wide jug with a handle) serving as a toilet to be used indoors. Outside, garden privies would consist of a wooden seat with a hole cut in it, sitting over a cess-pit or open sewer.

Read more about Shakespeare’s early childhood >>

Read more about Shakespeare’s teen & school years >>

Shakespeare’s likely classroom at The King’s New School

Shakespeare’s Marriage and Children

Parish records show that when Shakespeare was 18 years old he married Anne Hathaway, a 26 year old, wealthy farmer’s daughter , in Canterbury Province, Worcester.

Anne was three months pregnant when they married, with their first daughter, Susanna, born on the 26th May 1583. William and Anne went on to have twins Hamnet (a boy) and Judith (a girl), born on the 2nd February 1585. Hamnet died of unknown causes at 11 years old, but William’s daughters and wife outlived him. Judith went on to marry Thomas Quinney in 1616 and had three sons: Shakespeare, Richard, and Thomas. Shakespeare died in infancy and Richard and Thomas both died bachelors in 1639 leaving behind no legitimate descendants. There are legitimate descendants stemming from Shakespeare’s sister Joan who married William Hart some time before 1600.

Portrait of Anne Hathaway, Shakespeare’s wife

Shakespeare’s Lost Years

The seven year period after the birth of Hamnet and Judith is known as Shakespeare’s ‘lost years’ as there are no recordings about him, other than one mention of him visiting London in 1616 to see his son-in-law, John Hall.

Speculation about this time is rife. One prominent speculative theory is that Shakespeare fled from Stratford to avoid prosecution as a poacher. This theory could explain why he left his wife and children in Stratford and reappeared 90 miles away in London. Other theories are that Shakespeare toured with an acting troupe possibly in Italy. This latter theory is given weight as 14 plus of his plays include Italian settings, and a 16th Century guest book in Rome signed by pilgrims includes three cryptic signings that some attribute to Shakespeare. This is not a watertight argument though because Italian literature would have been widely read at the time. In addition, there is speculation that Shakespeare met John Florio , an apostle of Italian culture in England and tutor to Shakespeare’s patron; Henry Wriothesley, the Earl of Southampton . The possibility that Shakespeare was a soldier has also been debated widely but there is no proof to support this claim.

The truth is though that no one actually knows where Shakespeare lived or worked. What historians are certain of is that during this time Shakespeare left behind the image of a country youth and re-emerged as a playwright and businessman, so at some point during this time he learned his trade as a writer in London.

Shakespeare in London

The late sixteenth century and early seventeenth century is referred to as the golden age of English drama, due to the popularity of theatre, and volume of plays produced at that time. There was fierce competition among the twenty or so theatres in London, keeping scores of writers busy churning out new plays. Shakespeare became one of those writers, though we are not sure exactly how this occurred.

It seems that Shakespeare did not maintain a London household, but lived in several lodgings with landlords and other lodgers during his London years. He was always within walking distance of the theatre zone, so we can imagine him walking to work every day.

By the early 1590s, court records show Shakespeare was living somewhere in Bishopsgate, London. By then he had written Two Gentlemen of Verona , Love’s Labours Lost and A Midsummer Night’s Dream , Romeo and Julie t, Richard II , and The Merchant of Venice . He seems to have been interested in writing poems: in addition to his day job of writing plays – he also wrote his two long poems, Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece . Not only that, but this is the period when he started work on his sonnets .

In 1595 documents show that Shakespeare was a shareholder in the Lord Chamberlain’s Men , along with William Kempe and Richard Burbage . Shakespeare was involved with this company of actors in London for most of his career, as actor, producer, theatre owner and, of course, a very popular playwright.

It’s evident that Shakespeare was earning good money from his theatre business, as civil records show that in 1597 he bought New Place, one of Stratford’s biggest houses, and moved his family into it. In this same year, his son Hamnet died of unknown causes, aged eleven.

By 1599 Shakespeare was living in Bankside, on the south side of The Thames near the infamous Clink Prison. It was in this area Shakespeare and his business partners Kempe and Burbage built their own theater on the south bank of The Thames river, which they called the Globe Theater . and tt’s likely Shakespeare moved to Bankside to be near to the building site. Shakespeare’s playwriting would have been a necessity to provide material to fill his company’s new theatre every day. Between 1599 and 1604 he wrote at least seven plays, including Henry IV Parts 1 and 2 , The Merry Wives of Windsor , As You Like It , Much Ado About Nothing , Henry V and Julius Caesar .

Records show that in 1604 Shakespeare moved back to the City of London and rented a room in the house in Cripplegate, near St Paul’s Cathedral. In 1605, Shakespeare purchased leases of real estate near Stratford for 440 pounds, which doubled in value and earned him an income of 60 pounds a year. This made him an entrepreneur as well as an artist, and scholars believe these investments gave him the time to write his plays uninterrupted.

Shakespeare lived in Cripplegate for about eight years writing many plays, including Twelfth Night , Hamlet , Troilus and Cressida , Alls Well That Ends Well , Measure for Measure , Othello , King Lear , Macbeth , Antony and Cleopatra , Coriolanus , Timon of Athens , Pericles , Cymbeline , The Winter’s Tale , and The Tempest .

In 1607 his older daughter, Susanna, married and his mother died the following year. His sonnets were published in 1609.

It was a four-day ride by horse from Stratford to London, so it’s believed that Shakespeare spent all of his time in London writing and acting except for the 40-day Lenten period when theatres were closed when he travelled back to stay in Stratford-upon-Avon.

A map of London in Shakespeare’s time

Shakespeare’s Retirement

After a glittering career as an actor, playwright, and theatre proprietor in London, Shakespeare ‘retired’ to Stratford sometime after 1611 whilst in his late 40s. He rejoined his wife and two surviving children. By this time he also had a granddaughter, Elizabeth, daughter of Judith.

Retirement for Shakespeare was not a matter of sitting around in slippers and letting the world pass him by. He had a portfolio of properties and many business interests, including some in the corn and malt trades. He also continued to make the occasional long journey to London. Before leaving London Shakespeare had built up a selection of plays that hadn’t yet been performed. These included The Winter’s Tale, Macbeth, The Tempest, and Cymbeline. It is likely that he visited London for some of these first performances, most probably those of The Tempest and The Winter’s Tale, which were performed to King James.

On June 29th, 1613 Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre was burnt down. It is likely that this event meant more time spent in London for Shakespeare. Shakespeare was definitely in Westminster on 11th May 1612 where he appeared as a witness in the case of Bellot v. Mountjoy . At one time Shakespeare had been a lodger in Christopher Mountjoy’s house in Cripplegate, and now Mountjoy was being sued by his son-in-law, Stephen Bellott for defaulting on a promised marriage settlement. Shakespeare had been involved in the dowry negotiations and so was called to give evidence in the case.

Shakespeare enjoyed visits from his many friends in the world of theatre, arts, and letters to his home in Stratford-upon-Avon. He continued to collaborate with younger playwrights , participating in the writing of Henry VIII , Two Noble Kinsmen , and also the lost play, Cardenio , with his friend John Webster .

Shakespeare’s Death

We aren’t sure of the exact date of his death but it is assumed, from a record of his burial two days later at Holy Trinity Church, Stratford-Upon-Avon that he died on his 52nd birthday on 23rd April 1616. His gravestone remains there and bears the following engraving:

Good frend for Jesus sake forbeare To digg the dust enclosed heare; Blese be ye man yt spares these stones And curst be he yt moves my bones

It is believed that Shakespeare’s death occurred in New House, where he would have been attended by his son-in-law, Dr John Hall, the local physician.

Most historians agree that in the 17th Century Stratford-Upon-Avon had a reputation for scandalous stories and rumours with no basis in fact. This means that we must be cautious in believing for certain the commonly held theory about the cause of Shakespeare’s death:

in 1661, many years after Shakespeare’s death John Ward, the vicar of Holy Trinity Church noted in his diary : “Shakespeare, Drayton, and Ben Jonson had a merry meeting, and it seems drank too hard; for Shakespeare died of a fever there contracted.” It is therefore often stated that Shakespeare died from a fever after a drinking binge with fellow playwrights Ben Jonson and Michael Drayton . There are other reports that Michael Drayton and Ben Johnson visited Shakespeare a week before he died and spent the evening eating and drinking together.

This may be true, but there is a further theory that Shakespeare was sick for over a month before he died. The evidence comes from the fact that on 25th March 1616 (just 4 weeks before his death) Shakespeare dictated his will – in keeping with the 17th Century tradition of drawing up wills on one’s deathbed. This points to the fact that Shakespeare was aware his life was coming to an end. Some scholars also point to his signature on his will being somewhat shaky, suggesting his frailty at the time. As an aside, there is lots of historical discussion and exploration about whether bequeathing his second-best bed to his wife Anne Hathaway was a slight against her or not. It probably wasn’t but we don’t know for sure.

Despite all of the theories, the cause of Shakespeare’s death at the age of just 52 will likely remain a mystery. Shakespeare died a grandfather after living a relatively long and healthy life where the average life expectancy was just 35.

Shakespeare was buried on 25th April, 1616, in Holy Trinity Church in Stratford.

William Shakespeare’s grave in Holy Trinity Church, complete with curse and flowers

Buy Peter Ackroyd’s “Shakespeare The Biography” on Amazon

Buy Michael Wood’s “In Search of Shakespeare” on Amazon

Buy Harold Bloom’s “Shakespeare, The Invention of Human” on Amazon

Buy Bill Bryson’s “Shakespeare” on Amazon

Read Our Favourite Shakespeare Biographies in Print

There are so many books out there about Shakespeare and his life, but these four below are our all-time favourites. Each one is readable, informative and well worth relaxing with for a few hours to get a deeper understanding about the man himself:

Author’s Notes

Despite William Shakespeare’s fame as a historical figure, there are very few hard facts known about him. Historians use the following primary sources to piece together his life:

• Shakespeare’s works — the plays, poems and sonnets.
• Official records such as church and court records ( available here ).
• Written commentary about Shakespeare and his work from contemporaries such as Robert Green and Ben Johnson.

Biographers over the years have amassed an immense amount of knowledge and information Some fact, some opinion. A key purpose of this biography of William Shakespeare has been to make clear what is supposition or assumption rather than fact. We acknowledge here our reference to the following established secondary sources:

Bill Bryson. Shakespeare. London. Wilkie Collins. 2016 Peter Ackroyd. Shakespeare the biography. London. Vintage 2006. https://www.shakespeare.org.uk/ https://www.rsc.org.uk/ https://www.folger.edu/ https://www.britannica.com/biography/William-Shakespeare/ http://theshakespeareblog.com/http://www.william-shakespeare.info/ https://www.gutenberg.org/files/ http://www.literarygenius.info/education-of-william-shakespeare.htm http://www.william-shakespeare.info/ http://www.shakespeare-online.com/biography/shakespeareeducation.html

As an Amazon Associate, we may earn a commission from qualifying purchases, at no additional cost to you.

Read More About Shakespeare’s Life

Shakespeare’s life | Shakespeare timeline | Shakespeare biography | Shakespeare’s early childhood | Shakespeare’s teenage years | Shakespeare’s lost years | Shakespeare’s London years | Shakespeare’s final years | Shakespeare’s death

Read More About Shakespeare’s Family

Shakespeare’s family |  Shakespeare’s family tree | Shakespeare’s grandparents | Shakespeare’s parents | Mary Arden, Shakespeare’s mother | John Shakespeare, Shakespeare’s father | Anne Hathaway, Shakespeare wife | Shakespeare’s children | Judith Quiney | Hamnet Shakespeare |  Shakespeare’s grandchildren

• Pinterest 0

thanks this biography helped me with a school project!

Same Here!! lol :D

this will help me with my school project for history and i have probably gone beyond what we have learent in school

WoW! Thanks alot!! I actually had to do reasearch on william shakesphere for school!!! :)

you spelled it wrong

More process information and knowledge in terms of facts and his plays is needed otherwise, this is one of the few websites helping me to do my presentation on Shakey! Thanks for the help!

You guys can add some more stuff to it. Although this proved to be helpful for me yet I’d say that more points about Shakespeare’s life can be added.

can’t find quiz

I have very recently discovered that my Great+ grandfather, Thomas Ffoxe, Jr. lived on Silver Street, which was only a block long, and on which Shakespeare lived 1602-1612. Thomas was baptized at St. Olave’s Church, which was Hugenot, or Scandinavian, in 1618. I am still researching to see if Thomas’ father of the same name lived there before him. This church was catecorner to the Mountjoy House, a headdress maker and shop, where Shakespeare lived as a lodger during this period.

Enjoyed reading this and thank you .

Leave a Reply

Leave a reply cancel reply.

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.