Brief biography of William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare was born in 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon and died in 1616. He is often referred to as the English national poet and is widely considered to be the greatest dramatist of all time. Whilst there are many details of his life and career that we do not know for sure, scholars believe that during his life Shakespeare wrote 37 plays and 154 sonnets. Shakespeare’s father was in fact a glove maker and, as such, Shakespeare received no more than the basic education that his family could afford. He married Anne Hathaway in 1582, when he was eighteen and they had three children together. However, in 1590, Shakespeare left his family behind and headed to London where he became an actor and playwright and was immediately very successful. He soon became the most popular playwright of his time and he was a part owner of the now famous Globe Theatre. His theatre group was so renowned that it was adopted by King James as the King’s Men in 1603