Zoe Enser’s Bringing Forth the Bard is a tour de force: an essential guide to help ensure that our students receive the best teaching when it comes to approaching Shakespeare. It is a text that allows its readers to consider, to analyse and to reflect on why Shakespeare is still relevant in our classrooms today. From discussing his context and influences as well as biblical and classical allusion to an exploration of symbols, motifs and stagecraft, Zoe deftly removes any barriers to understanding Shakespeare we may encounter, offering us a peek into parts of the Bard’s world that are often ignored. This has clearly been a labour of love for Zoe, and how brilliant it is that it has been shared with us all. It is, quite simply, a triumph.

Zoe Enser’s Bringing Forth the Bard is erudite yet accessible, comprehensive yet pacey, and brimming with clever theory yet eminently practical. Essential for newer teachers, it features helpful insights and advice from expert teachers and will also offer enough new ideas to satisfy even the biggest Shakespeare aficionado. This book should go to the top of any English teacher’s book wish list.

Bringing Forth the Bard is a wonderful introduction to the joys and challenges of teaching young people about the work of England’s most celebrated playwright. In this eminently readable book, Enser shares her vast knowledge of Shakespeare’s creations and the ways in which teachers can make them accessible to young people. Whether you are teaching Shakespeare for the first time or searching for renewed inspiration, Bringing Forth the Bard will prove to be an insightful and invigorating read.

Bringing Forth the Bard is a welcome addition to the long line of books (in the tradition of Rex Gibson and James Stredder) about teaching Shakespeare in schools and colleges. Its pragmatic approach will appeal to teachers looking for practical material to use in the classroom. Many of the activities presented are entirely new and innovative. The book convinces us that Shakespeare is still relevant to young people in today’s classrooms, and that study of his works can be part of the all-important inclusivity agenda. Busy teachers will welcome the useful summaries of contextual material, and students will enjoy the string of lively, contemporary cultural references employed by the author when discussing the plays. The book does not shy away from addressing necessary – if sometimes less popular – issues such as examination board requirements and ‘cultural capital’, but matters are always directed back to the most important concern of all: bringing Shakespeare’s scripts to life in the classroom through creative activities which emphasise enjoyment of the plays’ themes, linguistic techniques and dramatic methods.

Zoe Enser’s Bringing Forth the Bard is an artful, accessible and fascinating guide to Shakespeare’s work, drawing on the immense power and the utter joy of studying his writing in a properly academic way. Enser draws masterfully on the intertextuality of the Bard’s work, weaving together excellent explanations and practical applications together with a range of superb case studies contributed by myriad subject experts. It is thoroughly expert, insightful and brimming with Enser’s clear love of Shakespeare’s work.

Bringing Forth the Bard is a resource I will return to time and time again, highlighter in hand, ready to share Enser’s expert insights with my students. Bloom argues Shakespeare shapes the way we think about the world; this book shapes the way I think about Shakespeare. It is a triumph.