Unlike any other book on Shakespeare, this one takes a single year and from the events of twelve months illuminates the whole of William Shakespeare's life and writing career. During 1599, Shakespeare wrote four great plays: HENRY V, JULIUS CAESAR, AS YOU LIKE IT, and HAMLET.

In each of those plays, he made a significant dramatic advance, staked out new territory even for a writer who was as inventive as he was. He also supervised the building of the new Globe Theater, settled into living in London (while his family stayed in Stratford) and shared with his countrymen the extraordinary events of this year: an English invasion of Ireland, the terrifying threat of a Spanish invasion, and the creation of the famed East India Company. It was a volatile period and the plays mirror England's role in global history, while Shakespeare's genius advances by leaps and bounds.