Leicester's Men and their Plays

Laurie Johnson is Professor in English and Cultural Studies at the University of Southern Queensland and, since 2016, has served as President of the Australian and New Zealand Shakespeare Association. He is the author of Shakespeare's Lost Playhouse: Eleven Days at Newington Butts (2018) and has written extensively in areas related to cultural history, literary studies, and Shakespeare's theatre.

• 1. Starting Points; 2. The First Decade (1558–1567); 3. The Second Decade (1567–1577); 4. The Third Decade (1578–1588).

'This book is going to be required reading for anyone working on the pre-Shakespearean theatre, and for anyone interested in the cultural and institutional origins of the drama of Shakespeare's own day. It offers a wealth of detail on the history, personnel, repertory, performance habits and touring practices of Leicester's Men, adding materially to existing narratives using unfamiliar archival data and details drawn from the most recent scholarship on the drama's written and archaeological traces. The result is a scrupulously-evidenced account that offers a powerful case for the historical importance of its subject.' Tom Rutter, University of Sheffield