Taking a curtain call with a live snake in her wig…

Acting opposite a child with a pumpkin on his head…

These are just a few of the things Dame Judi Dench has done in the name of Shakespeare.

For the very first time, Judi opens up about every Shakespearean role she has played throughout her seven-decade career, from Lady Macbeth and Titania to Ophelia and Cleopatra.

In a series of intimate conversations with actor & director Brendan O’Hea, she guides us through Shakespeare’s plays with incisive clarity. While revealing the secrets of her rehearsal process, sharing her personal interpretations of Shakespeare’s most famous scenes and inviting us to share in her triumphs, disasters, and backstage shenanigans. All brightened by her mischievous sense of humour, striking level of honesty and a peppering of hilarious anecdotes, many of which have remained under lock and key until now.

Illustrated throughout with original art by Dame Judi Dench.

Instructive and witty, provocative and inspiring, this is ultimately Judi’s love letter to Shakespeare, or rather, The Man Who Pays The Rent.

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Praise for The Man Who Pays the Rent

‘This is a gloriously entertaining tour through the canon in the company of perhaps the most experienced living Shakespearean actor’ – Observer

‘An utterly delightful book. An unstoppable stream of anecdotes, recollections and asides’ – Telegraph

‘Companionable and compelling, mischievous and convivial – it genuinely feels like you’re sitting at her kitchen table with Judi Dench.’ – Guardian