I’m reviewing the fabulous Arden by GD Harper, an intriguing story of Shakespeare’s earliest years #blogtour #histfic #newrelease

Here’s the blurb

Alice Arden, idealistic and wealthy beauty, burnt at the stake for killing her husband, the former mayor of Faversham in Kent. But was she really the one responsible for the most scandalous murder of the sixteenth century?

William Shakespeare, England’s greatest playwright, born thirteen years after Alice’s execution. Why does his first-ever play, written about this murder, not bear his name?

This is a story of two people – one reviled, one revered – whose fates become linked in a tale of corruption, collusion and conspiracy. Based on historical documents and recently published academic research, Arden unveils shocking new evidence about the murder of Thomas Arden and reveals, for the first time, a remarkable new theory about Shakespeare’s early years.

Purchase Links

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Arden-astonishing-untold-story-Shakespeares-ebook/dp/B0DFBV9YSB

https://www.amazon.com/Arden-astonishing-untold-story-Shakespeares-ebook/dp/B0DFBV9YSB

My Review

Arden by GD Harper is a beautifully crafted tale of two individuals, separated by forty years, with the one entirely unaware of the other, that reimagines the hows, whats and ifs of Shakespeare’s earliest efforts to become a playwright and the story that ‘called’ to him to enable him to do so.

Offering us two points of view, that of Alice Arden, and Shakespeare himself, we travel through the years that lead to Alice’s crisis and see how Shakespeare was himself plagued by her story. To begin with, Alice is the most likeable character. Young, bright, and vivacious, she pulls the reader along through the years when Shakespeare is not at all the man we might expect him to be. His life is difficult (perhaps because he makes it so, to be honest), but soon his dreams of being an actor and writing plays becomes his driving force. At the same time, Alice’s life is blighted by her marriage to a man of ambition but no regard for the life of his wife, who is deeply unhappy. Shakespeare’s life improves as events rumble towards their awful conclusion for Alice. But he is still somewhat haunted by the tale of Alice Arden, and I adored how her final narrative is teased from those who have knowledge of it that isn’t known by all. It is horrific.

This was such an engaging narrative. I liked neither character at points, but they both had endearing qualities that made it a joy to read this fictionalised account of what might have been. 

It’s a fabulous story.

Check out my review for The Maids of Biddenden.

Meet the author

I have written four novels in the last eight years under the penname GD Harper. 

My last novel, The Maids of Biddenden, the imagined biography of real-life conjoined twins born in 12th-century Kent, was featured on BBC TV News and was the winner of the Next Generation Indie Book Awards in the historical fiction category, shortlisted for the 2022 Selfie Award at the London Book Fair, and shortlisted or longlisted for five other awards. 

It has over a thousand ratings on Amazon UK and Goodreads, with an average score of 4.3. Across the major Amazon markets, it reached number sixteen in overall paid-for e-book sales, number two in historical fiction and number one in medieval historical fiction. 

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