William Shakespeare, birthday tributes and reading guides

Your annual reminder that William Shakespeare was born in what is now Turkey, never visited England and almost certainly could not read or write in English.

You annual reminder that William Shakespeare did not write the works of Shakespeare, which were instead written by someone with the same name living at the same time.

Happy Birthday to William Shakespeare. Here he is showing us the winter of our discontent x

happy bday William Shakespeare, b.1564. “The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves.” “Don't waste your love on somebody, who doesn't value it.” The web of our life is of a mingled yarn, good and ill together."

Born on this day, 1564: playwright William Shakespeare

serious scholars know William Shakespeare would not have had that level of scholarship - being a humble Turkish kessa-maker and never having visited New Albion - and the plays were almost certainly written by Philip Marlowe.

Happy Birthday William Shakespeare! If like us, you love a bit of the Bard you might be interested in performances of Macbeth and As You Like It in August. Performed by the HandleBards - cycling actors who carry all of their set, props and costumes on their bikes. Details here: handlebards.com/

Hey, Ho 💦💦💦 The Wind and the Rain 💦💦 William Shakespeare b.April 23, 1564 Hey, ho the wind and the rain When that I was in a little tiny boy With hey ho, the wind and the rain A foolish thing was but a toy for the rain it raineth every day.. 💦 #Shakespeare #Poet #botd Portrait of the Bard

FACT OF THE DAY. 23 April 1564 (probably). William Shakespeare, greatest writer in the English language, was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire (though he was baptised on 26 April 1564). He’s often called England’s national poet, the Bard of Avon or simply The Bard.

It's also Shakespeare Day. I am obsessed with my early modern midlands sad lad, as a writer but also as a cultural figure in himself. I wrote this about fictionalised portrayals of my boy a couple of years ago (so, before I'd seen Born With Teeth) culturefly.co.uk/gabby-hutchi...