Citing local history as a fascinating, invaluable, and often neglected resource for the study of our past, Fogg presents the biography of Shakespeare’s birthplace, a market town in west central England called Stratford-upon-Avon, which had no extensive settlement until the Middle Ages. He notes the inevitable unevenness of the records: there is far more information from Shakespeare’s time, which enables a fuller picture of town life and personalities. Fogg celebrates the Bard’s hometown from ancient times to the present, particularly as seen through Shakespeare’s eyes and from his viewpoint as someone with one foot in the rural environment and one in the urban. Distributed by Casemate. Annotation ©2016 Ringgold, Inc., Portland, OR (protoview.com)