{"product_id":"walking-shadow-love-loss-and-shakespeare-9781526694379","title":"Walking Shadow: Love, Loss and Shakespeare","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA compelling blend of memoir, travelogue and investigation, \u003ci\u003eWalking Shadow\u003c\/i\u003e sheds new light on the past while Doran himself emerges from the darkness of loss.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e'A deeply involving, humane book' \u003c\/b\u003eROWAN WILLIAMS\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Intimate, humorous, yet profoundly moving' \u003c\/b\u003eSTANLEY WELLS\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Deeply enjoyable'\u003c\/b\u003e HARRIET WALTER\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA compelling blend of memoir, travelogue and investigation, \u003ci\u003eWalking Shadow\u003c\/i\u003e sheds new light on the past while Doran himself emerges from the darkness of loss. \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAfter the death from cancer of his husband, \u003cb\u003eAntony Sher\u003c\/b\u003e, Greg Doran stepped down from his role as artistic director of the Royal Shakespeare Company. In the 400th anniversary of \u003cb\u003eShakespeare’s First Folio\u003c\/b\u003e, and inspired by the surprising history of the company’s own copy, he set out to see how many of these important volumes he could find. \u003ci\u003eWalking Shadow\u003c\/i\u003e relives the months leading up to Sher’s death, told via the two men’s \u003cb\u003eraw and loving diaries\u003c\/b\u003e, and maps Doran’s quest to track down folios worldwide. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe journey took him to Japan, where Doran met the emperor, and to New Zealand and South Africa where the legacy of \u003cb\u003eShakespeare has become entwined with the story of colonialism\u003c\/b\u003e. In Europe, his trip to Frankfurt takes him to the place where the First Folio was initially offered for sale in 1622. While in England, he visits the places where Shakespeare and his actors once walked. Each copy has its own unique features – often visible only to the eagle-eyed – and remarkable tales. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBy his journey’s end, Doran had seen more than 200 First Folios – over 90 per cent of all the surviving copies – including one whose existence was previously unknown. \u003cb\u003eHe had also gained a greater understanding of Shakespeare and his times, as well as his impact on the world.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch4\u003eDetails\u003c\/h4\u003e\u003cp\u003eISBN13: 9781526694379\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eFormat: Hardback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eNumber of Pages: 400\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eEdition: \u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003ePublication Date: \u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003ePublisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003ePublication City, Country: London, United Kingdom\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDimensions (cm): 23.6(H)x16.2(L)x3.8(W)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWeight (gm): \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch4\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h4\u003e\u003cb\u003eGreg Doran\u003c\/b\u003e has been described as ‘one of the supreme Shakespeare directors of our era’ (\u003ci\u003eFinancial Times\u003c\/i\u003e). He joined the Royal Shakespeare Company as an actor in 1987 and was its artistic director from 2012 to 2022. He has directed and\/or produced every single play in the First Folio of Shakespeare’s plays at Stratford-upon-Avon. He was awarded the Sam Wanamaker Prize for pioneering work in Shakespearean theatre in 2012. He was knighted for services to the arts in 2024.\u003ch4\u003eReviews\u003c\/h4\u003eOne of the most \u003cb\u003esearingly beautiful \u003c\/b\u003eShakespeare, love and detective stories ever written -- ANTHONY SELDON, author and historian\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eA deeply involving, humane book\u003c\/b\u003e: Greg Doran slowly unwraps the still open wound of bereavement while chronicling with liveliness and wit a long and varied pilgrimage into the heart of the inspiration that fuelled decades of brilliant work. The conversation between Doran and his life-partner, Antony Sher, especially in Sher's last illness, forms a strong, sombre groundbass to the\u003cb\u003e fascinating narrative\u003c\/b\u003e of Doran's exploration of the varied fortunes of Shakespeare's First Folio: two interwoven loves -- ROWAN WILLIAMS, former Archbishop of Canterbury\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eWalking Shadow\u003c\/i\u003e is a book of two parts: the first almost unbearably moving, the second uplifting, as we’re taken on \u003cb\u003ea Shakespearean odyssey \u003c\/b\u003eto the four corners of the globe. Combined, it explores deep grief, letting go and deciding to live. \u003cb\u003eMagnificent\u003c\/b\u003e -- DANIEL EVANS, Co-Artistic Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company\u003cbr\u003eFrom the last journey of his husband Antony Sher which he intimately describes, Greg Doran converts his grief into a solo journey, to see as many copies of Shakespeare’s First Folio as possible. He takes us with him across centuries and continents, gathering stories of the eccentrics, scoundrels and scholars into whose hands the Folios fell, speculating about each ink blot, wine stain and possible tear drop that mark the ancient pages. His is \u003cb\u003ethe best kind of scholarship\u003c\/b\u003e, born of true curiosity and openness. \u003cb\u003eA deeply enjoyable and eclectic history lesson with many an anecdotal diversion\u003c\/b\u003e. Inevitably grief ambushes him at times and then so often it is a quote from Shakespeare that restores him. \u003cb\u003eI can’t think of anyone whose inner resources and particular set of talents better equip them to take on this quest\u003c\/b\u003e -- HARRIET WALTER\u003cbr\u003eBoth Greg Doran and his life-partner, the late Antony Sher, are memorable storytellers — whether recounting (in Sher’s case) his final months, or (in Doran’s) a subsequent and global Shakespearean quest.  Drawing on both their voices and journeys, \u003ci\u003eWalking Shadow, \u003c\/i\u003ein telling of ‘things dying and things newborn,’ is a\u003cb\u003e haunting, uplifting, and beautiful\u003c\/b\u003e book -- JAMES SHAPIRO, author of 1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eA profoundly moving memoir about grief, mortality and continuity \u003c\/b\u003e… This book narrates how, after Tony Sher’s death from cancer in 2021, his devastated widower consciously used his continuing passion for Shakespeare as a prompt to find a new life, embarking on a quest to visit all the surviving Folios around the globe. \u003ci\u003eWalking Shadow\u003c\/i\u003e is at once \u003cb\u003ea meticulous contribution to our understanding of Shakespeare’s place in the world\u003c\/b\u003e, and a searching meditation on how great drama can enable us to understand and to negotiate even the most cruel personal losses -- MICHAEL DOBSON, Director of the Shakespeare Institute\u003cbr\u003eThere was always a third person in Gregory Doran’s marriage to Antony Sher: Shakespeare, who brought them closer and closer together. In \u003ci\u003eWalking Shadow\u003c\/i\u003e, Sher speaks from beyond the grave, with characteristic and unsparing directness, in his Dying Diaries. After Sher’s death, Doran throws himself into a wonderfully various and enlightening global quest to see as much as possible of Shakespeare’s literary remains, in the year of the 400th anniversary of the First Folio. Only when that quest is complete is he ready to read the Dying Diaries for the first time. \u003ci\u003eWalking Shadow\u003c\/i\u003e is \u003cb\u003ean utterly personal work with much to teach everyone\u003c\/b\u003e, and not just about Shakespeare.\u003cb\u003e \u003c\/b\u003eIt is a record of a remarkable marriage and Shakespeare’s part in it.\u003cb\u003e It has the power to rend and repair the heart\u003c\/b\u003e -- EWAN FERNIE, Fellow and Chair of Shakespeare Studies at the Shakespeare Institute\u003cbr\u003eSir Greg Doran’s \u003cb\u003eintimate, humorous, yet profoundly moving\u003c\/b\u003e account of the final illness and subsequent death of his husband, the actor Sir Antony Sher, followed by Doran’s worldwide journey in search of every surviving copy of the Shakespeare First Folio of 1623, \u003cb\u003edeserves to be recognised as a classic testament of grief and ultimate healing\u003c\/b\u003e -- STANLEY WELLS, Honorary President of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust\u003cbr\u003eGreg Doran is probably the only theatre professional in history to have directed all of Shakespeare’s plays — and now he has seen almost all the surviving copies of the great First Folio that gathered and preserved those plays. \u003cb\u003eHIs love of Shakespeare — and of his late partner Sir Antony Sher — shines from every page\u003c\/b\u003e of this book as brightly as his knowledge of the works and their insights into the human heart -- JONATHAN BATE, author of Mad About Shakespeare\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eWalking Shadow\u003c\/i\u003e is as much an \u003cb\u003eepic journey\u003c\/b\u003e through the wounded heart as it is through Shakespeare’s ever-resonating global legacy; a \u003cb\u003estupendous, candid and deeply humane\u003c\/b\u003e monument to the two greatest loves of Sir Gregory Doran’s life. Doran’s quest for the Bard’s First Folios is a story of resilience through tragedy, of the timeless instinct to memorialise the human bonds that sustain us, and of the healing power of hope. \u003cb\u003eA stunning achievement and a vital literary moment \u003c\/b\u003ein the history of Shakespeare scholarship -- CHRIS LAOUTARIS, author of Shakespeare's Book: The Intertwined Lives Behind the First Folio\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eWalking Shadow\u003c\/i\u003e, the story of Greg Doran’s quest in search of all extant Shakespeare Folios in Britain and America, is given an \u003cb\u003eoverwhelming emotional charge\u003c\/b\u003e by being rooted in the heartbreaking journals he and Antony Sher kept during the latter’s agonising death from cancer. Shakespeare was at the very centre of their lives and every page of \u003ci\u003eWalking Shadow\u003c\/i\u003e is profoundly informed by that mutual passion. Doran has written \u003cb\u003ea book whose reach goes even beyond Shakespeare\u003c\/b\u003e, but in doing so, illuminates him deeply from within -- SIMON CALLOW\u003cbr\u003eGrief is one of Shakespeare’s most sublime and visceral themes. Throughout this \u003cb\u003eunforgettable \u003ci\u003eIn Memoriam\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e, Greg Doran becomes inspired by his grief to pay tribute to a great actor, his late partner Tony Sher, and also to the inextinguishable fascination of the First Folio\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003efour hundred years after publication. A love-letter to Sher in his final days, and Shakespeare through the centuries, \u003ci\u003eWalking Shadow\u003c\/i\u003e is \u003cb\u003ea must-read for every avid theatre-goer\u003c\/b\u003e -- ROBERT McCRUM, author of Every Third Thought: On Life, Death, and the End-Game\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBeautiful, haunting, and healing\u003c\/b\u003e. Like Shakespeare’s plays themselves, Doran delivers \u003cb\u003ea complex gift\u003c\/b\u003e that will continue to inspire long after the last page -- AYANNA THOMPSON, Regents Professor of English at Arizona State University and author of Blackface\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBrutally, beautifully moving\u003c\/b\u003e, funny and honest. A love letter to loves lost and love everlasting. \u003cb\u003eA privilege to read\u003c\/b\u003e -- LUCIAN MSAMATI\u003cbr\u003eThis is \u003cb\u003eone of the most moving books you'll ever read about Shakespeare\u003c\/b\u003e. Greg takes you achingly through the final days of his life with Tony Sher, and the sense of grief and desperate loss that comes from love; he then embarks on a global search for as many copies of the First Folio as he could find - all of them subtly different - and he finds ultimately that Shakespeare brings with him the ability to heal -- LORD CHRIS SMITH, Chancellor of the University of Cambridge\u003cbr\u003eSadness there is, of course, lots of it, but \u003cb\u003eSher's writing\u003c\/b\u003e, even when he's dying, has the same kind of \u003cb\u003erestless energy\u003c\/b\u003e that shot through his acting and art; every setback and regret, every terror and amusement (and there are some) is held unblinkingly up to the light… A \u003cb\u003edeeply moving last offering\u003c\/b\u003e from one of theatre's greatest partnerships… There is \u003cb\u003elots of fun\u003c\/b\u003e to be had in the stories of the scholarly obsessives, millionaires and occasional fraudsters who have pursued this great book over the centuries -- TOM WARD * The Oldie *\u003cbr\u003eA \u003cb\u003every moving\u003c\/b\u003e record of one person’s confrontation with death and of his partner’s attempt to cope with survival … A human story about how grief over loss of a loved one can be turned into a seemingly impossible quest and a search for consoling hope -- MICHAEL BILLINGTON * Guardian *\u003cbr\u003eSher’s account is \u003cb\u003ebattering but profound \u003c\/b\u003e…Doran’s book is \u003cb\u003eall about love\u003c\/b\u003e. This is bibliography carried out in grief, a deeply humanised kind of book description by a man who feels a rushing intimacy with the object he is describing… Doran strikes a \u003cb\u003enice balance between the reverential and the iconoclastic\u003c\/b\u003e… Doran’s folio quest is \u003cb\u003erich on anecdote\u003c\/b\u003e, brief biographies of historical figures and rapid surveys of book-making techniques -- ADAM SMYTH * Times Literary Supplement *\u003cbr\u003eSher’s \u003cb\u003eunflinching \u003c\/b\u003eobservations of himself… are interspersed with Doran’s pain and perseverance… \u003cb\u003ean\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cb\u003eimportant testament\u003c\/b\u003e of grief and dying -- PAUL EDMONSON * Church Times *\u003cbr\u003eThis \u003cb\u003eheartbreaking\u003c\/b\u003e book, published by Sher's husband, Greg Doran, is a tribute to love, grief and Shakespeare -- KATE MALTBY * Prospect *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePoignant and absorbing\u003c\/b\u003e -- CHERYL MARKOSKY * Broadway World *\u003cbr\u003eA rattling narrative…this scholarly Sherlocking is thrilling… Walking Shadow [is] one (or possibly two) of the best books in this gruelling but useful genre -- MARK LAWSON * Literary Review *","brand":"Greg Doran","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49241065980121,"sku":"9781526694379","price":50.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/www.arielbooks.com.au\/products\/walking-shadow-love-loss-and-shakespeare-9781526694379","provider":"Ariel","version":"1.0","type":"link"}