I wanted to give this 4 stars, but I think it's more like a 3.5

It was quite an enjoyable read, and Bernard Cornwell does a great job as usual of putting the reader quite vividly in the setting of late 16th century London, but I struggled to get really invested in the characters. Even Richard, though well rounded, didn't feel particularly engaging.

Nevertheless, some Shakespeare and some intriguing historical playhouse politics contributed to a decent storyline, and it was a nice little break from heavy fantasy. ( )

From Netgalley as an ebook, this is from the author of the Sharpe series of books, which I haven't read (but have been known to watch the adaptations when they come on the TV, if that counts for anything).

So this is a departure from his normal work, in him writing about the playhouses starting up in the time of Queen Elizabeth 1 and William Shakespeare. It is told from the standpoint of Richard, William's younger brother. Richard is already a member of the playhouse, and whilst playing the parts of women, he is getting a little too old to do so, and is desperate to get “men’s parts”. It is precarious work – they don’t get paid to rehearse, only to actually perform in a play, of which new ones are few and far between.

Those that can read and write can earn a little more money, by copying out actor’s lines or being the “bookman”, prompting the performers during rehearsals.

With new Playhouses and groups being set up almost weekly and demand for entertainment ongoing, competition for new material is constant, with some groups resorting to stealing other group's works if they dont have a writer to create their own work.

We get to find out what living in this kind of London is like – trying to find somewhere to stay if you miss curfew; literally living hand to mouth because you haven’t been paid that week; your work and home being raided on a regular basis by the heavy handed state gangs looking for priests and seditious materials – it has long been believed that the Shakespeare family are heretical Catholics, and people are desperate to find some kind of proof. The story is framed by the completion and staging of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” for the wedding of the Lord Chamberlain’s daughter. The competition for parts, the learning of lines, what happens when things get “confiscated” by competing playhouses. There is intrigue, fighting, plotting and ever changing politics that most groundlings are unaware of.

Meanwhile, told in flashback is how Richard came to be in London - Being rather older, William has already left the family home and gone to London by the time Richard is old enough to get an apprenticeship, something that does not work out well. Richard escapes and goes looking for his brother who places Richard with Sir Godfrey Cullen. It is here that Richard learns most of his life lessons, including how to act, put on a performance and sword fight and most importantly – how to steal. Whether the William of the book or the actual William knew that being in Sir Godfrey’s “care” means that he was one of many who got prostituted out as part of St Benet’s Choir, we don't know. Richard's skills in thieving, as well as the other stuff he's learnt since coming to London, helps both himself and the group (as well as his relationship with William) when things go missing.

Because of Cornwell’s previous books, I suspect people would be a let down if there wasn’t a little sword play and fighting throughout the book, and there are several scenes included, which I hope makes some fans happy.

This is not my usual era of history - I tend to read Tudor or Regency - so this was an interesting change in tone. The difference between the rich and the poor; actors living hand to mouth, whilst performing to the groundlings and the Queen; the need to please the crowd whose tastes could be simple (bit of dancing, some fighting, some singing, some rude jokes); all combined with th pressure of finding or writing new work.

So this is not quite a Ripping Yarn, but a detailed story of a fraught time in English history, that is well worth reading and rather entertaining.

In a clever imagining of the first presentation of William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, Bernard Cornwell's Fools and Mortals tells the story of The Lord Chamberlain's Men through the eyes of Richard Shakespeare, William's younger brother. Cornwell's story provides an excellent overview of the society of the day, including the Catholic/Protestant religious strife, Elizabethan manners, filthy environment, rampant disease, sexual perversions, and the ease with which one might find oneself being hanged.

Richard is a small player in the company run by William and has been relegated to playing women's roles. He's also a small-time thief. Playing only women's roles is starting to grate on Richard. He desires more substantial men's roles. However, William views his younger brother as an annoyance.

A new playhouse is being built south of the Thames and the financiers are managing to get their hands on everything that they need except plays to perform. They devise a plan to abscond with William's plays, A Midsummer's Night and William's new one about a pair of star-crossed lovers in Verona, Italy, and perform them before William has a chance to play them before a public audience. Their plans include Richard.

When Richard finds himself suspected by William and the rest of The Lord Chamberlain's Men of involvement in the plays' thefts, Richard sees that the only way he can get back into William's good graces is to recover them himself, and the dangers he faces in doing so are very real.

Fools and Mortals has romance, history, intrigue, and thrills. Cornwell's descriptions of English city life during Elizabethan times is well integrated into the narrative. His looks behind the curtain at theater practices is comprehensive, and the players characters are greatly revealed through how they deal with the management of the troupe, how they go about preparing for their parts, even to their individual superstition practices before going onstage.

If you like history, theater, or just a plain old thriller, Fools and Mortals should suffice nicely. ( )

I came to read this book by starting and setting aside another of Bernard Cornwell’s books, 1356, which includes a plethora of blood-soaked action in the first few chapters, including rape, torture, murder, and castration. It was too much even for me and I can handle a good amount of bloodshed. I was, however, impressed by Cornwell’s writing so I sought out another, less gory, of his books. Fools and Mortals takes place in 1595 and is based on the imagined relationship between William Shakespeare and his younger brother, Richard. The tale is told by Richard Shakespeare. He describes his journey to London, how he became a player, his strained relationship with his brother, and rival companies attempting to exploit his brother’s success. The narrative revolves around the plays, players, patrons, rivalries, and theatres of the era. The plot is based on the initial production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, written for a wedding celebration and performed at the residence of a wealthy patron and cousin of Queen Elizabeth.

The author has a knack for describing the life and times of people living in London in the late 16th century, giving the reader a feeling of “being there” through vivid descriptions of the sights, smells, sounds, and tastes. He provides a glimpse into the religious climate of the day (Puritans vs. Catholics), what it was like to be a player, and barriers which had to be overcome in order for the dramatic arts to thrive. It is filled with interesting details about theatre-craft of the period, such as lighting with candles, death scenes using a pig’s bladder filled with sheep’s blood, males playing female roles, pigments used for make-up, manually transcribing roles for actors, the constant pressure for new material. I found it fascinating.

If you haven’t read (or seen) A Mid-Summer Night’s Dream, I suggest viewing it first, since this book contains major plot-spoilers. It is also helpful to be somewhat familiar with Shakespeare’s canon. Unlike many other of Cornwell’s works, this is a stand-alone novel with fewer action-packed scenes. The author provides a note at the end describing what parts were based on historical research and what was invented. Recommended to those interested in Tudor era historical fiction or the early days of theatre. ( )

This is a right adventure. The setting is broadly the first staging of "A Midsummer Night's dream" at the house of the Lord Chancellor for his grand daughter's wedding. Along side this we have the building of a new playhouse, the Swan, which is shrouded in secrecy and seems to be short of plays and so sets out to steal the one being written by Will Shakespeare. We see all this through the eyes of his younger brother, Richard, who ran away from his apprentice master and has come to London to be a player. He is just getting too old to play the female roles and want to play a man's part. He is growing up physically, but he remains Will's younger brother and this colours their relationship, Richard wanting his brother's approval, Will unable to see him as he now is. And then there's a brief, but touching romance, with Sylvia being sufficiently independently minded to bring about a dramatic change in events.
At times this gets pretty unpleasant, there is quite graphic violence, there are past abuses and there's the nasty overtone of religious oppression and the blinkered puritan view. It tends to support the view that life in the past was nasty, brutish & short. But there is more to this book than those passages. They set up a fabulous view of the performance from the actor's perspective, which is well worth the read. Having not long listened to the play in question, It was fun to see it coming together through the rehearsals and into the performance. And, to borrow the playwright's own lines, all's well that ends well. ( )