Anne Whateley is a beautiful girl who gets her looks from her late Italian mother, Anna Rosalina de Verona, who was a travelling tumbler and dancer before her marriage. Anne’s father is English and, although he is illiterate, operates a growing pack train business which carries goods from Stratford to London and back. However, it is said that William Shakespeare’s father “married up”—his wife’s family, the Ardens, being both wealthy and educated—so a match with Anne Whateley is not at all what the Shakespeares have in mind for their son. Friends from an early age, Anne and William have a closeness that bonds their very souls and over time grows into romantic love. They travel to a church near their home where the priest registers their license, but William and Anne decide to postpone announcing their marriage until they can find the best way to tell both their families. But days later in that same church, William is forced to marry Anne Hathaway who is said to be carrying his child. Unable to deal with her anger and grief, Anne goes to London. But the separation is not permanent as she and William begin seeing each other again. Their friendship and passion cannot be denied. Although their life together is now severely limited, it also holds great love, adventure, and comfort for them both in times of great loss.
Told in first person by Anne Whateley, this fictional memoir is a touching perspective of the life of William Shakespeare told by his soul mate and lifelong love. Expertly researched and woven with the pageantry of Elizabethan and Jacobean history, this author has given us a rare glimpse of real persons from history, turning their lives into narratives that will entertain and delight the most discriminating of readers.