'It is STUNNING and I simply sat and read it right through, and shall start again at once. I had no idea that she is such a sensationally fine poet. Astonishing' JOANNA LUMLEY

'Harriet Walter unpicks and re-centres the inner life and journey of these women as only one of our most talented and celebrated classical actors could. A must read!' MAXINE PEAKE

'Bold and original . . . Anyone who cares about Shakespeare will want to own and share this book'

JAMES SHAPIRO, author of 1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare

Dame Harriet Walter, renowned for her wonderful portrayals in Succession and Killing Eve among others, is one of Britain's most esteemed Shakespearean actors. Now, having played most of the Bard's female characters, audaciously she lets them speak their minds.

With thirty new parts for Shakespeare's women, written in 'Shakespearean' verse and prose, Harriet Walter goes between the lines of the plays to let us hear what she imagines - sometimes playfully and sometimes searchingly - these women were really thinking.

Gertrude tells Hamlet the unvarnished truth; Lady MacBeth has her regrets; Kate, the Shrew, challenges us; Juliet's nurse challenges the nobility; Cleopatra's handmaiden reveals her mistress's secrets; Ariel is frightened of freedom; Ophelia surprises us; Olivia surprises herself; and the Witches have a good old rap.

Harriet Walter herself says, 'I worship Shakespeare. His psychological insight is second to none but the mirror that he held up to nature reflected a predominantly male image of the world. I pondered the long shadow of his genius and tried to think of ways to let a little sunlight in on some of his women's stories. I like to think he wouldn't mind'.

'An incisive, funny, mischievously subversive homage to Shakespeare's heroines, written by one of mine' MEERA SYAL

'With characteristic wit, compassion and fierce intelligence, she gives tantalising voice to the Bard's female greats' TAMSIN GREIG

'Effortlessly witty, charming, surprising, delightful. Clearly, Harriet Walter should have been in the

writers' room with us for Succession' FRANCESCA GARDINER