DR CHRIS LAOUTARIS is an Associate Professor at The Shakespeare Institute (University of Birmingham), in Shakespeare’s birthplace of Stratford-Upon-Avon. He is the author of Shakespeare’s Book: The Intertwined Lives Behind the First Folio (William Collins), which was a BBC History Magazine Book of the Year and a Financial Times Best Summer Book. In addition to his many academic publications, he has written Shakespeare and the Countess: The Battle that Gave Birth to the Globe (Penguin), which was shortlisted for the Tony Lothian Prize for Biography, was an Observer Book of the Year, Telegraph Book of the Year, one of the New York Post’s ‘Must-Read Books’, and one of the Daily Telegraph’s top ten history holiday reads. Laoutaris is the recipient of the Morley Medal in English, two prestigious Post-Doctoral Fellowships (a British Academy Post-Doctoral Fellowship and a Birmingham Fellowship), and his first poetry collection, Bleed and See (Broken Sleep Books),

PRAISE FOR SHAKESPEARE’S BOOK ‘A superb evocation of the places, personalities and networks that helped turn the words of William Shakespeare into secular scripture. A brilliant, sinewy, deeply immersive read from a fine scholar and storyteller’ Jessie Childs, bestselling author of The Siege of Loyalty House'[A] significant offering… his mission is admirable: to trace every major step in the collective enterprise, starting from the death of the leading Shakespearean actor Richard Burbage in 1619, which served as a melancholy spur… to collate the Bard's works for posterity… [T]he necessary drama is there' Daily Telegraph‘Laoutaris’s history of the interlinked careers behind the Folio scheme, brings that network to life . . . His resourceful sleuthing ties the Folio’s birth to the politics of its time’ Economist'Like Shakespeare's plays, Laoutaris's book revolves around detailed interpersonal relationships. From his pages you will learn about the lives of Heminges and Condell… and many others… trestfy[ing] to the thoroughness of the author's research’ Washington Post'A must read for anyone with even a slight passing fancy for Shakespeare . . . To say this is a book to be read and reread, and have a place on the library shelf, would be a major understatement’ Judith Reveal, New York Journal of Books‘[A] brilliant new study of the Folio’s genesis … genuinely thrilling. Shakespeare’s Book offers both wonderful vignettes of Shakespeare’s world and tantalising solutions to long-standing mysteries. Laoutaris compellingly recreates the vital collaborations – and rivalries – behind the printing of ‘Shakespeare’s Book’’ The Tablet‘Intricately woven, vividly depicted and groundbreaking’ Dr Paul Edmondson of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust