AF The Player’s Boy by Antonia Forest

First published by GGBP in 2006,  we are delighted to be republishing The Player’s Boy now.

   Eleven-year-old Nicholas Marlow, an ancestor of the modern Marlow family, runs away from home in this engaging work of historical fiction, set in the later days of Queen Elizabeth’s rule. Dismayed to learn he is no longer welcome at Trennels, because his older brother is expecting a child, and his sister-in-law doesn’t wish to be bothered with him, and facing a terrible punishment at his grammar school, for repeating a statement made to him by that notorious atheist, Kit Marlowe, Nicholas joins Kit on his journey to London. When this new friend is killed, he finds himself in the keeping of Marlowe’s patron, Lord Southampton, and then eventually given over to one William Shakespeare, to be his player’s boy. Over the course of several years, Nicholas becomes more experienced in the world of the theatre, determining that being a player is what he wants to do with his life…

   The introductory material includes an historical introduction by Hilary Clare, a biography of Shakespeare by Sue Sims, updated for this edition to include the latest scholarship, a list of dramatis personæ, and a survey of the actual writing, using the original manuscript and typescripts by Sue Sims.

The Player’s Boy will be published in July / August. 10 June the book is being typeset now. 

.