PositiveThe San Antonio Express NewsFools and Mortals is as skillful a blend of history and fiction as any novelist can achieve ... For his new novel, Bernard Cornwell invented a life for Richard Shakespeare, a historic younger brother (1574-1613) of playwright William Shakespeare (1564-1616) ... The plot turns on fictional events, but the tension and the appeal of the novel rises from the well-researched setting of London in the time of Queen Elizabeth I ... The fictional plot revolves around theft and love, highly reflective and symbolic of Shakespeare’s plots, to form a perfect balance between fiction and fact ... Best of all, through Richard’s first-person narrative, Cornwell’s version of William Shakespeare emerges as an unloving brother, a shrewd businessman, a passable actor and the most talented playwright ever ... Anyone reading Fools and Mortals will not see or read Shakespeare the same again.
