One can find plenty of literature on the life and works of William Shakespeare. Much less if any can be found and read about his three children. This is the first book about the married life of his eldest daughter Susanna with her husband doctor John Hall, a general practitioner in the Stratford-upon-Avon of those days. Through the eyes of Susanna and with her husband’s original notes on his patients we get acquainted with the family, neighbours and friends of her famous father. In this way we get to know William Shakespeare more as a family- and townsman. All the persons mentioned did actually exist. From Susanna’s point of view we learn about the hard work involved in running a doctor’s practice in the first half of the seventeenth century. The book intertwines the cases of Hall’s patients with an account of what was often tumultuous daily life in Stratford, all based on true facts. With the remarkable dates of her two marriages Eliza, only child of Susanna and John Hall, honoured definitely her dear parents and her beloved famous grandfather.
The Dutch writer and former journalist Bert van Nieuwenhuizen:
“With her book Susanna Shakespeare the author delivers a historic novel of stature. Reading this book will make the Shakespearian England of your imagination really come alive!”
