Birthplace of Shakespeare, Stratford-upon-Avon is a celebrated and much-visited town. From the probable origins of Stratford in a monastic settlement of Celtic Christian missionaries from Whitby, to the foundation of a 'new town' in the Middle Ages and the development of a miniature Christian commonwealth under the medieval guilds, the town's early years are traced in fascinating detail. Shakespeare's Stratford is brought vividly to life, but this book is about Stratford, not just the great writer it produced, and these pages hold a full account of the Civil War, the Commonwealth, the Restoration, followed by the languor of the Georgian era. Victorian revival and the growth of modern communications led to the disappearance of much of old Stratford, while the present century has seen both change and conservation.The town's Shakespeare connections ensured keen interest in its local records as early as the eighteenth century so that they are probably the fullest archives for any place in England, providing a uniquely detailed picture of town life through the centuries. Extensive research into these records as well as into the memories of Stratfordians past and present results in a portrait of a town that is at once lively and thorough. We meet the greats (Warwick the Kingmaker, William Shakespeare, Oliver Cromwell, David Garrick, James Boswell, Queen Victoria) but also the generations of townspeople whose lives and works made Stratford. The book is a celebration of a wonderful town and of those who have been Stratfordians.

REVIEWS Citing local history as a fascinating, invaluable, and often neglected resource for the study of our past, Fogg presents the biography of Shakespeare's birthplace, a market town in west central England called Stratford-upon-Avon, which had no extensive settlement until the Middle Ages. He notes the inevitable unevenness of the records: there is far more information from Shakespeare's time, which enables a fuller picture of town life and personalities. Fogg celebrates the Bard's hometown from ancient times to the present, particularly as seen through Shakespeare's eyes and from his viewpoint as someone with one foot in the rural environment and one in the urbanProtoview.