This is a delightfully fun toy book for fans of the bard. McDermot and Berk have compiled a fictionalized scrapbook imagining it to be a gift of mementos collected by Shakespeare as a present to his daughter Judith about his life in London as an actor and playwright. Alongside the fictional notes from William himself explaining life and manner in the big city are their own 21st century commentary on the playwright’s life and family connections in and around Stratford-upon-Avon: his education and departure to the become an actor, the Globe Theater, his contemporary playwrights, actors, and friends, life at court and among the lowlifes of the city. It also includes information on 16th and early 17th century English beliefs about the supernatural and ways of waging war and throwing big parties. As the cover promises it is “an interactive journey packed with booklets, fold-outs and flaps,” many facsimile documents, and tiny book-like summaries of some of his plays. ( )