Hamlet: A User's Guide

An intensely practical account of the way Hamlet actually works on stage. Writing with the benefit of inside experience of many productions, actor and director Michael Pennington takes us through Hamlet scene by scene, and character by character. He also gives a personal account of his own encounters with the play, and of its staging through the ages. 'A wonderful book' Ronald Harwood 'Racy, vivid, well informed, and continuously entertaining' Stanley Wells 'An insider's guide par excellence' Simon Callow 'It is his range of knowledge - along with a gift for writing clearly and memorably - that makes him such a fine guide'- Times Literary Supplement

Michael Pennington is a British actor, director and writer. He has played a variety of leading roles in the West End, for the Royal Shakespeare Company, for the National Theatre and for the English Shakespeare Company, of which he was co-founder and joint Artistic Director from 1986-1992. He has also directed several of Shakespeare's plays, and is the author of books on Hamlet, Twelfth Night and A Midsummer Night's Dream, amongst others. He has toured his solo shows, Sweet William and Anton Chekhov, throughout the world.