William Shakespeare’s plays were written by a woman, a new book claims.
The bard’s classics Romeo and Juliet and Othello are apparently packed with proof they and others were penned by his 17th Century poet contemporary, Emilia Bassano. American chick-lit novelist Jodi Picoult, 58, uses her latest novel, By Any Other Name, to delve into the theory.
She also believes Bassano was only one of many writers writing under the Shakespeare “brand”. Jodi said at the Hay literary Festival: “I think that, back then, people in theatre knew that William Shakespeare was a catch-all name for a lot of different types of authors.
“I think they expected it to be a joke that everyone would get. And we’ve all lost the punchline over 400 years… here’s the one thing we don’t know about Shakespeare: that he actually put quill to paper.”
