“Just what the world needs,” you might think, “another book about bloody Shakespeare”. Surely everything that can be said about him has already been said.

Well, that's what I thought. Wearily prising the covers open, I prepared myself for another snoozefest of warmed-over ideas and regurgitated truisms.

But by the end of the second page (yes, as quickly as that), it became clear that Christopher Rush has got a hell of a lot worth saying. His knowledge and love of his subject shines through, and Mr Jaded Shakespearean here found himself learning something.

Ostensibly, this is the autobiography Shakespeare never wrote. Holed up in his flash Stratford house, the Bard is on his last legs, and dictating his will (Will's will if you will), to his lawyer, Francis Collins, a man of enormous girth and a Falstaffian appetite for food and drink. Looking back over his life, he takes us into all kinds of hidden corners of his personal history from the cradle to the grave. And it's a fascinating journey.

Christopher Rush taught Shakespeare (the subject, not the man) for over thirty years – and he knows what he's talking about. In fact, “Will” could almost be a history book, were it not so entertaining. Everything here has its basis in fact. We know far more about Shakespeare's biography than most critics acknowledge, and Rush knows it all. What we don't know is pleasingly and plausibly conjectured from the facts that are available. You could use this book to teach Shakespeare in schools – and here at Beautiful Sounds, we're thinking about putting together some audio packages which will do just that. Want to know about the background to “Twelfth Night”? It's all here. And what about the time when Shakespeare and his fellow actors transported their theatre piece by piece across the frozen Thames and re-erected it on the south bank? And who was the dark lady of the Sonnets? And was Shakespeare gay, as has often been suggested by critics with too much time on their hands? You'll find all the answers in this intriguing book.

And now, of course, the audio. Read in its entirety by experienced Shakespeare thesp David Rintoul, the text springs to life.

And if you're still not sufficiently convinced to download it, listen to me interviewing Christopher about his lifetime's labour of love. If you have the smallest scintilla of interest in Shakespeare, or you're studying him, you MUST hear this book.