We are beyond proud: Oneworld has acquired Shakespeare’s History of the World, a radical new interpretation of Shakespeare’s complete dramatic works by acclaimed Shakespearean scholar Simon Palfrey.
Publishing Director Sam Carter acquired World all-language rights, excluding English Language in the US, from Ivan Mulcahy at the International Creative Agency. Peter Simon at Liveright scooped up US&NA rights.
Palfrey reveals a Shakespeare preoccupied with the forces of history: power and rebellion, war and empire, faith and superstition, love and violence, and the endless struggle for human freedom. Bold, funny, provocative and brilliantly original, this is Shakespeare as rarely seen before.
Simon Palfrey said: ‘I wanted to do something no one has ever really done, imagine that Shakespeare’s playworlds compose a single interconnected story, a single barely discovered country, reaching back to before humankind and into the imaginable future, like the Bible or Dante’s Divine Comedy, an epic story of imperfect players trying to become what they know in their secret hearts they already are.’
Sam Carter said: ‘It’s the sheer quality of Simon’s writing, the exhilarating iconoclasm and the audacity of his vision that make this book so exciting. When this landed from Ivan I knew I had in my hand that rarest of things: a genuinely new line on the Bard. Simon makes us see plays we thought we knew as though for the first time. It’s a thrilling book, and a privilege to be publishing it.’
Shakespeare’s History of the World will be published in Autumn 2028.
