The Private Life of William Shakespeare, by Lena Cowen Orlin Peter J. Smith gets drowned in the detail of an ambitious study of the playwright’s milieu By Peter J. Smith 29 November
Shakespeare’s Englishes, by Margaret Tudeau-Clayton Peter J. Smith enjoys a powerful analysis of how the work of the Bard cuts through simplistic notions of national identity By Peter J. Smith 4 October
The Fetters of Rhyme, by Rebecca Rush Peter J. Smith admires a bold attempt to show how details of poetic form reflected deep political and religious divisions in early modern England By Peter J. Smith 31 May
Smells: A Cultural History of Odours in Early Modern Times, by Robert Muchembled Peter J. Smith applauds a fascinating, if stomach-churning, study of ‘the pongs of the past’ By Peter J. Smith 28 May
Voices of Guinness: An Oral History of the Park Royal Brewery, by Tim Strangleman Peter J. Smith enjoys a vivid, if perhaps idealised, account of life in one of the world’s great breweries By Peter J. Smith 14 November
The Romantic Tavern: Literature and Conviviality in the Age of Revolution, by Ian Newman Peter J. Smith raises a glass to ‘conviviality’ in life and literature By Peter J. Smith 30 May
Obscene Pedagogies: Transgressive Talk and Sexual Education in Late Medieval Britain, by Carissa M. Harris Peter J. Smith on an ambitious effort to mobilise Middle English literature for modern feminism By Peter J. Smith 14 February
ShakesFear and How to Cure It: The Complete Handbook for Teaching Shakespeare, by Ralph Alan Cohen Peter J. Smith wishes the UK would adopt a US approach to making the Bard more accessible By Peter J. Smith 30 August
Hamlet and the Vision of Darkness, by Rhodri Lewis Book of the week: Will we swallow a radical take on a Shakespearean tragedy served with edibles? asks Peter J. Smith By Peter J. Smith 25 January
Pissing Figures, 1280-2014, by Jean-Claude Lebensztejn While many see hilarity in paying the water bill our feelings about it fluctuate, says Peter J. Smith By Peter J. Smith 16 November
Stage and Picture in the English Renaissance: The Mirror up to Nature, by John H. Astington Peter J. Smith on a study of the interrelationship between visual culture and the theatre in 16th- and 17th-century England By Peter J. Smith 10 August
Visions of Sodom: Religion, Homoerotic Desire, and the End of the World in England, c.1550-1850, by H. G. Cocks Peter J. Smith lauds a powerful study of the relationship between homoerotic desire and anxieties about social, religious, cultural and even apocalyptic collapse By Peter J. Smith 22 June
