Shakespeare & Co Stanley Wells Allen Lane, the Penguin Press, 304pp, £25 ISBN 0713997737

For many, Shakespeare is timeless, unique and unsurpassed. But Stanley Wells sees England's most famous playwright not as an isolated genius, but as a fully paid-up member of his theatrical peer group. This book is as much a study of the many dramatists who paved the way for Shakespeare's work as it is about the Bard himself. Most famously there was Marlowe, but Wells also gives space to John Lyly, Robert Greene, Thomas Lodge, George Peele, Thomas Nashe and Thomas Kyd - as well as Ben Jonson, at times both a friend and a rival. In addition, Wells devotes a chapter to the leading actors of the day.

Wells, one of the most respected figures in his field, gives new vitality to this somewhat tired subject. Renaissance London comes to life: we meet the ferryman who entertained his passengers with "doggerel verse"; we become part of the bustling, often rowdy crowd inside the playhouse; and we get an insight into the tumultuous life of an Elizabethan actor. Wells's language can sometimes be pompous - we are told that Ben Jonson and William Drummond often conducted their conversations "bibulously" - but, for the most part, this is an entertaining and edifying read.

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