Leon Garfield (1921–1996) was born and raised in the
seaside town of Brighton, England. His father owned a series of
businesses, and the family’s fortunes fluctuated wildly. Garfield
enrolled in art school, left to work in an office, and in 1940 was
drafted into the army, serving in the medical corps. After the war,
he returned to London and worked as a biochemical technician. In
1948 he married Vivian Alcock, an artist who would later become a
successful writer of children’s books, and it was she who
encouraged him to write his first novel, Jack Holborn, which was
published in 1964. In all, Garfield would write some fifty books,
including a continuation of Charles Dickens’s Mystery of Edwin
Drood and retellings of biblical and Shakespearian stories. Among
his best-known books are Devil-in-the-Fog (1966, winner of The
Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize), Smith (1967, published in The
New York Review Children’s Collection), The God Beneath the Sea
(1970, winner of the Carnegie Medal), and John Diamond (1980,
winner of the Whitbread Award).
Michael Foreman has illustrated more than one hundred books,
including those for stories by J.M. Barrie, the Brothers Grimm,
Charles Dickens, and Oscar Wilde. His most recent work includes The
Seeds of Friendship, which he wrote and illustrated, and the
illustrations for Michael Morpurgo’s retellings of Sir Gawain and
the Green Knight and Beowulf.
"In these lively and evocative pages a child will hear
Shakespeare’s poetry set in prose that will lay the groundwork for
many a future enchanted evening at the theater.” –Meghan Cox
Gurdon, The Wall Street Journal
"Leon Garfield’s performance in Shakespeare Stories is masterly.
The Merchant of Venice, The Taming of the Shrew, Twelfth Night, and
A Midsummer Night’s Dream best reveal the virtuosity Mr. Garfield
has developed in many years of writing dozens of children’s books
and historical novels. In Mr. Garfield’s deft narratives the
laughter is the same that one finds in the plays, but so is the
uneasiness. He gets the balances right." —D. J. R. Bruckner,
The New York Times
"Here is an alternative to yellow study guides, one in which
explication is available in the graceful prose. Garfield’s seamless
movement between his own descriptive language and Shakespeare’s has
never worked better." —Sally Margolis, School Library
Journal
"The most accessible introduction to the Bard ever." —Woman &
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