William Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1564 and is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language. Also known as the Bard, he wrote more than thirty plays, including Macbeth, Hamlet and A Midsummer Night's Dream, which have been translated into every major living language and performed countless times over the past 450 years. Tess Newall was born in 1987 and when she is not stitching tiny crowns or building miniature balconies she works as a freelance set designer, specialising in fashion, window displays and decorative interiors. She lives in London. Alex Goodwin was born in 1985 and owns five different editions of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (which he has been told is four too many). When he is not trimming soliloquies or pruning secondary characters, he works as an editor. He lives in London.