In an interview with Salon, Sherrin seemed unsure of just how much Stoppard availed himself of the gift. Stoppard, visiting India at the time of press, was unavailable for comment. Norman, the originator of the screenplay, is less ambiguous. Any student who studies Shakespeare's life soon finds there are very few facts, but a great body of lore. With an M.A. in English literature from UC-Berkeley, Norman seems comfortable utilizing historical information about Shakespeare's life and times.
Some correspondences remain provocative.
Hogarth Press, a division of Random House in Britain, has no record of the novel, and Sherrin, the executor, has no plans to reprint it. Well, he has now. Craig Offman is a writer-reporter for Time magazine. All rights reserved.