Arden by G D Harper #Review

 

We start 2025 by visiting the sixteenth century and meeting two remarkable people from the time, one of whom happens to be William Shakespeare. Arden by G D Harper was published on October 1st by Ginger Cat.

 The astonishing untold story of Shakespeare's first play

Alice Arden, idealistic and wealthy beauty, burnt at the stake for killing her husband, the former mayor of Faversham in Kent. But was she really the one responsible for the most scandalous murder of the sixteenth century?

William Shakespeare, England’s greatest playwright, born thirteen years after Alice’s execution. Why does his first-ever play, written about this murder, not bear his name?

This is a story of two people – one reviled, one revered – whose fates become linked in a tale of corruption, collusion and conspiracy. Based on historical documents and recently published academic research, Arden unveils shocking new evidence about the murder of Thomas Arden and reveals, for the first time, a remarkable new theory about Shakespeare’s early years.

 

 

My Thoughts

This has got my 2025 reading off to a cracking start. You are taken back to the sixteenth century in two different story threads which converge. Anne Arden's life as a respectable gentlewoman is far from conventional and her homelife is challenging. From the outside, she has to appear respectable but the reality of her life is troubled. You feel the suffocating expectations of women which society enforces as she struggles to conform. Men, it seems, can act as they want.

    William Shakespere (as he most likely spelt his name) is a young man with a wife and children to support. He has an impetuous side which leads him into trouble but he too is struggling to conform to his family's expectations. Several decades separate the two story threads. You follow Will as he tries to learn the craft of the actor and the playwright. Full of period detail about the daily life of these two people, these are characters who emerge from the pages. Anne's life becomes dangerous and treacherous and you can understand how Will is attracted to the drama of her life. From the start, you know that there is a grisly end in store for her. With some fascinating photographs and a thorough appendix of G D Harper's research into the period, you are posed with the fascinating contention that an anonymous play could in fact be Shakespere's first play.

In short: drama, intrigue, infamy  

About the Author

GD Harper was the 2024 winner of the Next Generation Indie Award for historical fiction, shortlisted for the 2023 Selfies Book Award at the London Book Fair, and longlisted or shortlisted for eight other literary prizes.

You can follow him at : Instagram  |  Website  | Facebook: @gdharperauthor 

Book link: Amazon UK

Thanks to G D Harper, Ginger Cat and Anne Cater of Random Things Tours for a copy of the book and a place on the tour.

Check out the rest of the tour!