"Brilliantly illuminating ... The best introduction to Shakespeare's plays that I've read, perhaps the best book on Shakespeare, full stop. Emma Smith's voice is disarmingly frank, refreshingly irreverent, full of pop culture Her reading of the plays is dazzling, her original research totally convincing."

---Alex Preston, The Observer (London)

"I admire the freshness and attack of Smith's writing, the passion and curiosity that light up the page."

"Thought-provoking Anyone who doesn't understand what all the fuss is about should read This Is Shakespeare. Smith-who is no enemy of fun: her book fizzes with jokes-is celebrating a Shakespeare who talks to the present. She does it all with such a light touch you barely notice how much you're learning."

---Colin Burrow, The Guardlan (London)

"Smith is perhaps the preeminent Shakespeare communicator working today. This Is Shakespeare cuts through the accumulated crust of `schoolroom platitudes,' cant, and literary piety in order to dust Shakespeare off and see him as he is, was, and might be."

---Tim Smith-Laing, The Dally Telegraph (London)

"If I were asked to recommend one guide for readers keen on discovering what's at stake in Shakespeare's plays, This Is Shakespeare would be it."

---James Shapiro, author of The Year of Lear: Shakespeare in 1606