The Lambs of London - Softcover

"A delicately cut historical novel about the Bard's greatest, boldest, maddest fans. . . oddly affecting and thoroughly entertaining."--The Washington Post Book World"A delicious entertainment, faithful to its period, but done with the lightest of touches. . . Nobody knows this world better than Peter Ackroyd, and his latest foray into bygone London finds him at the top of his form."--The Sunday Telegraph"Ingenious and mesmerizing. . . . A dazzling novel about false truths and real-seeming lies."--The San Francisco Chronicle"Gothic and wry, with a sweet-and-sour mix of tragedy and comedy worthy of a Romantic-period Shakespeare forgery, The Lambs of London builds to . . . a moving crescendo."--Newsday

From the author of Chatterton and Shakespeare: A Biography comes a gripping novel set in London that re-imagines an infamous 19th-century Shakespeare forgery. Charles and Mary Lamb, who will in time achieve lasting fame as the authors of Tales from Shakespeare for Children, are still living at home, caring for their dotty and maddening parents. Reading Shakespeare is the siblings’ favorite reprieve, and they are delighted when an ambitious young bookseller comes into their lives claiming to possess a ‘lost’ Shakespearea play. Soon all of London is eagerly anticipating opening night of a star-studded production of the play not knowing that they have all been duped by charlatan and a fraud.