SHAKESPEARE IN SWAHILILAND by Edward Wilson-Lee, which is coming out from William Collins in the UK on 10 March and will be followed with a 13 September publication in the US from Farrar, Straus & Giroux. The UK edition was launched on 10 March at Sidney Sussex College in Cambridge, where Edward is a Fellow, and there’ll be a London event at Stanfords Travel Bookshop in Covent Garden on Tuesday 15 March.

Here’s the publication day story:

http://blakefriedmann.co.uk/news/shakespeare-in-swahililand-pub-day

SHAKESPEARE IN SWAHILILAND has already been cited by The Times as one of the ‘25 Bard-tastic events to book for 2016’, by the Wall Street Journal in its piece on ‘The Coming Shakespeare Extravaganza’ and by the Financial Times among the ‘Books to look forward to in 2016’.

Shakespeare in Swahililand is the story of a journey across eastern and central Africa to recover the extraordinary and unknown story of the part played by Shakespeare’s works in the region’s history. It aims to find the holy grail of literary studies – an answer to why Shakespeare should be so universally adored in the most unlikely of places; but along the way it is a travelogue, a memoir, a satire, an ode to Shakespeare, and a history of a region which combines breathtaking beauty and cultural riches with the heartache of injustice.