It is the longest-running deception in the English language and the most successful. Four hundred years of duping the world.
A tale of deceit, corruption, love, passion. Of murder, fixing and bribery, centred on the writing of some of the greatest works known.
A tale of two remarkable men, the frenzied times they lived in, and the fixated people that surrounded them.
William Shakespeare.
Christopher Marlowe.
One is the real playwright.
The other is the stooge.
Which is which?
‘The Playmakers’ is the novel that answers the question. An absorbing tale of conspiracy, manipulation, romance and murder when two young men from vastly different backgrounds are flung together by their passion for the written word.
Shakespeare, the savvy, street-wise actor and producer, and Marlowe, the educated brilliant writer. Each has his own dark secrets, aspirations and singular approach to life and love, but they are bonded forever when caught in a web of political intrigue, corruption and ultimately brutal murder.
To escape torture in Elizabethan chambers of horror and save their lives, they are reluctantly cast as the main players in the greatest theatrical performance ever, acting out an extraordinary literary deceit that has lasted to this day.