'Enjoyable, lively A such a pleasure to read A renders the drama of ShakespeareOs contemporaries more than fringe entertainmentO Independent Shakespeare is one of the greatest of all English figures, considered a genius for all time. Yet as this enthralling book shows, he was at heart a man of the theatre, one among a community of artists in the teeming world of Renaissance London O from the enigmatic spy Christopher Marlowe to the self-aggrandizing Ben Jonson, from the actor Richard Burbage to the brilliant Thomas Middleton. By bringing ShakespeareOs contemporaries to life, Shakespeare & Co throws fresh new light on the man himself. NWarm, cheerful, generous A Wells sketches a whole gallery of ShakespeareOs fellow playwrights A He brings each vividly to life, making you feel that youOve met them personally in some Blackfriars tavernO Simon Callow NIt was a time and place teeming with excitement, anecdote and incident, and Wells, in this richly enjoyable work, brings it to life with a novelistOs sense of the telling detailO Dominic Dromgoole NEnthrallingO ObserverNThis is one of the most sane and exciting books on Shakespeare I have read for a long timeO Scotland on Sunday