An oxford-based Shakespeare scholar has completed an acclaimed literary trilogy exploring the life, loves and final months of William Shakespeare in his native Stratford-upon-Avon. Professor Michael Kerr Scott, Senior Fellow and Senior Dean at Blackfriars Hall, Oxford, has released Shakespeare, Sex and the Psychotherapist through Edward Everett Root Publishers. The novel completes a trilogy that began with Hamlet and the Psychotherapist and The Scottish King: Macbeth and the Psychotherapist, blending scholarship, history, humour and fiction through the adventures of 21st-century time-travelling psychotherapist Dr Jacob Fortune.
Professor Scott, one of the UK’s foremost authorities on Shakespeare and Elizabethan drama, has written and edited more than 50 books during a distinguished academic career spanning higher education, theatre criticism and literary studies. Now based in Oxford, he was also the founding Vice Chancellor of Wrexham University.
In the final instalment, Jacob travels to Stratford-upon-Avon during the last six months of Shakespeare’s life, where the playwright reflects on his relationships, family life, political struggles and enduring legacy. The book also explores Shakespeare’s complicated place in Protestant England, including long-running speculation surrounding his Catholic faith, while examining how themes of power, inequality and oppression remain relevant more than 400 years later.
Professor Scott said: “This was always a story I knew would provoke real discussion, because it deals with Shakespeare as a man as much as Shakespeare the writer. “There has long been a tendency to portray him in certain ways, but I wanted to explore the idea that he was far more loving, reflective and family-orientated than history sometimes allows. “The novel looks at his relationships, his worries about money, his political difficulties connected to the theatre, and his awareness that his life is coming to an end. It is emotional in places, funny in others, and very human.”
The novel has already attracted praise from academics and literary critics; Michael J Collins, of Georgetown University, described it as “witty, imaginative, insightful and at times deeply moving,” while Professor John Drakakis, of University of Stirling, said: “The collisions of facts and speculation are remarkable.”
Professor Scott added: “After decades of academic writing and scholarly work, this trilogy was my first real step into fiction blended with research and history, and I’ve loved every minute of it. “It gave me freedom to use imagination alongside scholarship and to make Shakespeare accessible in a completely different way. I’m incredibly proud to have completed the trilogy.”
Among the novel’s more contemporary twists is a scene in which Jacob uses virtual reality technology to show Shakespeare what happens to his plays after his death – a nod to the enduring relevance of his work in the modern world. Professor Scott says the books were also an opportunity to challenge assumptions about one of history’s most studied literary figures.
“There are still many debates about Shakespeare’s private beliefs and personal life,” he said. “One of the fascinating aspects for me was exploring the religious dimension, particularly the suggestion that he may have retained Catholic sympathies in a Protestant nation where that carried real dangers.”
Despite completing the trilogy, Professor Scott says there is plenty more to come, including a future book exploring his own family history and Irish heritage. “I never really believed in slowing down,” he said. “There are always more stories to tell.”
For more information and to purchase the book, visit Amazon UK.
