From Bardolotry to sniggering at Shakespeare, this fascinating and unique book takes a long hard look at the man from Avon and unearths all the oddities, quirks and stories behind Shakespeare's world. It looks at the man behind the moustache and his works (did Queen Elizabeth really write the plays?) and at the effect he's had on the English language as we know it.

We find out why Shakespeare left his second-best bed to Anne Hathaway, about the great figures who hated him, the ongoing quest to translate the entire works of Shakespeare into Klingon and why exactly you can't mention 'the Scottish play' to an actor. 'The Shakespeare Companion' provides the reader with a folio of Shakespearean notes, quotes, facts and stats.

Shakespeare is still firmly lodged in the national conscience and almost four hundred years after his death he still rates as one of the greatest Britons of all time. Recent Hollywood adaptations of 'The Merchant of Venice' with Al Pacino prove that he is still a box-office draw, and it is a legal requirement that every school child is versed in his ways before they make it to the big wide world.

'The Shakespeare Companion' doesn't just contain fascinating snippets of information; it also offers extracts from some of the world's finest writers. Charles Dickens soliloquises with Phillip Roth while Jane Austen struts the boards with Aldous Huxley. And like all other books in the Companion series, there's a great piece of statistical trivia to match each page number.