Her Majesty’s Will by David Blixt

Writing a novel about William Shakespeare and Christopher Marlow is an audacious venture, but I know of no writer who could pull it off as well as David Blixt. David Blixt is both a Shakespearian actor and a writer of historical fiction. Among his delightful creations are The Lord of Verona and Colossus, Stone and Steel.
A fugitive from injustice, Will Shakespeare, AKA Will Falstaff, is employed in a rural school in Lancashire His pupils are less than promising. There is a ruckus outside the school room and Will ends up rescuing a damsel in distress who is being accosted and mauled by two ruffians. The damsel turns out to be no damsel at all, but a young man named Christopher Marlowe, who it turns out, is in the employ of Sir Edward Walsingham, who heads the secret service of good Queen Bess. Young Kit Marlowe believes that he has uncovered a plot by Papists to assassinate the Queen and place Mary, Queen of Scots, on the throne, thereby restoring England to Catholicism.
Marlowe convinces Will that his life is now in danger and he must flee with him to London. It’s a case of “Please don’t throw me in the brier patch,” Young Will finds London, despite its obvious dangers and intense urban blight, much to his liking.
“It was a remarkable discovery, one that Will vowed then and there not to forget. There was more life in these low beings, in these clowns and vagabonds, these rakes and hellions, these criminals and idiots, than in all the respectable gentlemen of the court. Huffing Kate, Blacke Davie, Tarlton, Cutting Ball-these creatures positively teamed with spirit, overflowing the meager cups of their existence with their humor, their desires, their very essence. They were as worthy of immortality as the highest monarch born to the throne.”
Anyone who enjoys the down-to-earth aspects of Shakespeare will live this book. The puns, bon mots, double entendres, and witticisms fly fast and furious throughout. Her Majesty’s Will is a book worth savoring more than once.