The Owl Was a Bakers Daughter: The Continuing Adventures of Judith Shakespeare

(Hardback)

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"Witty, resilient, and fiercely intelligent, Judith emerges as a heroine for the ages. Her journey, rich in historical authenticity and imaginative storytelling, offers insights that resonate across the centuries."Christina Baker Kline,New York Timesbestselling author ofThe Exiles

For readers of Hilary Mantel and Madeline Miller, a deeply engrossing work of historical fictiona tale of a woman of the Shakespeare family struggling to manage both her private grief and public danger.

At the age of sixty-one, Judith Shakespeare, a midwife-apothecary and twin of the long-dead Hamnet, must flee provincial Stratford on horseback to avoid arrest for witchcraft. Her traveling companions are a zealous Puritan woman and child who have been displaced by civil warthe bloody seventeenth-century strife between Royalists and Roundheads. Judith is also leaving her marriage, which has foundered since the wrenching loss of two adult sons to the plague.

The sequel to the authors My Father Had a Daughter, a tale of Judith in her youth, The Owl Was a Bakers Daughter revisits this character for the agesShakespeares sharp-tongued, witty youngest child, no less feisty in her maturity. Four-hundred years after Judiths death, Grace Tiffany brings her back onto center stage. Judiths latest tale offers profound insightsinto friendship, motherhood, marriage, religious extremism, and warwhich remain resoundingly true today.

Reviews

In this engrossing novel, Grace Tiffany brings to life Judith Shakespeare, the daughter of the Bard. A midwife and apothecary, Judith finds herself accused of witchcraft and forced to flee Stratford on horseback. As she navigates a war-torn England, she confronts not only the perils of the road but the weight of her own grieftwo sons lost to plague and a marriage unraveling in the aftermath. Witty, resilient, and fiercely intelligent, Judith is a heroine whose journey, rich in historical authenticity and imaginative storytelling, resonates across the centuries. Christina Baker Kline, New York Times bestselling author of Orphan Train andThe Exiles Judith Shakespeare is all grown upheck, shes as old as me!and has the battle scars to prove it. How this mother, wife, grandmother, midwife, apothecary, and all-around wise woman navigates a time shockingly similar to our own gun-toting one is nothing short of amazing. You will love Grace Tiffanys lively and enlightening story. Bonnie Jo Campbell, bestselling author ofThe Waters "The Owl Was a Bakers Daughtercombines the gifts of a social historian with those of an accomplished storyteller.In this sequel toMy Father Had a Daughter, set in a war-torn England, Grace Tiffany brings to life the travails of Shakespeares now older (but no less adventurous) daughter, Judith.It is a vivid and memorable novel, beautifully rendered." James Shapiro, author of1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare "I was hopelessly hooked from the very first page." Sharon Kay Penman, New York Times bestselling author of Time and Chance, on My Father Had a Daughter "Evocative language and perfect detail. A True pleasure." Sarah Willis, author of A Good Distance, on My Father Had a Daughter

Author Bio

Grace Tiffany is a professor of English literature at Western Michigan University. She is the author of academic texts as well as the novels My Father Had a Daughter: Judith Shakespeare''s Tale and Will, both stories of the Bard. Grace Tiffany and her family live in Kalamazoo, Michigan. This is her first novel for young readers.