<p><i>‘Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, </i><i>But bears it out even to the edge of doom’</i><br /><br />Sonnets are for romantics, starry-eyed lovers and ardent hearts. And Shakespeare’s sonnets are the best ever written.<br /><br />But this is why they are also for cynics, for star-crossed lovers and for those who know the anguish of unrequited love. <br /><br />Some of them are written to a young man, some of them to a woman. And although the poems are full of mystery – why did Shakespeare write them, what was his sexuality? – each one speaks to us from across the centuries of love, hate and the intensity of being alive.<br /><br />Includes exclusive content: In the &apos;Backstory&apos; you can find a short, handy, funny guide to everything you might want to know about Shakespeare and his sonnets.<br /><br />‘This is a crazy, all-consuming, feverish and sweaty love; love, in all its uncut, full-strength intensity; an adolescent love’ Don Paterson, <i>Guardian</i></p>