By Any Other Name by Jodi Picoult

What if the greatest writer of all time isn’t who we think he is? What if he isn’t even a he? Step back four hundred years and discover the female author who hid behind the mask of the man we know as William Shakespeare…

In Elizabethan London, young Emilia Bassano is a ward of English aristocrats. Her education has endowed her with a sharp wit and a gift for storytelling, but still she is allowed no voice of her own. Forced to become a mistress to the Lord Chamberlain, who oversees the theatre, Emilia discovers the power of stories to beguile audiences. Secretly, she forms a plan to bring a play of her own to the stage – by paying an actor named William Shakespeare to front her work. In modern-day Manhattan, playwright Melina Green finds a woman’s voice is still worth less than a man’s. But, inspired by the life of her ancestor Emilia Bassano, Melina takes a lesson from history and submits a play under a male pseudonym.

Moving between Elizabethan England and modern day Manhattan, By Any Other Name is a beautifully written, compelling novel that explores the theme of identity and the ways in which two women, centuries apart—one of whom might just be the real author of Shakespeare’s plays—are both forced to hide behind another name to make their voices heard.

‘Her best one yet. Jodi Picoult has combined her trademark research with an astonishing and heart-rending story, embedded in truth, and turned it into a gripping novel’ JOJO MOYES

‘Stunning. So interesting, clever, educational and moving. One of the best books I’ve read in recent times’ GILLIAN McALLISTER’