Who was the real architect of the Gunpowder Plot? Who was the first person to wear a Guy Fawkes mask? Why was Shakespeare s Dark Lady dark? These and many other questions are answered in Graham Holderness s new novel, which combines historical fiction, psychological mystery and supernatural thriller in a highly original and imaginative re-telling of the Gunpowder Plot. It is 1604. The Gunpowder Plotters are tunnelling under the palace of Westminster, and confront an immovable obstacle. Guy Fawkes travels to Europe to fetch help, and brings back more than he bargained for. Who is the...

William Shakespeare is arguably the world's most famous writer. His plays and sonnets have been translated into many different languages, and are performed, read and loved the world over. But what of the man himself? What did he believe? Was he a secret Catholic, like his father, prepared to run the risk of being accused of treachery to the Tudor state? Or was he convinced by the new Protestant teaching? Or maybe did he not believe any of it, just saying and doing what was expected of him, in order to get by in a dangerous age? Shakespearean scholar Graham Holderness examines the evidence,...