This is a penetrating and exciting analysis of one of Shakespeare's most elusive plays. This constitutes an entirely fresh approach to The Tempest: that does not apportion blame for what happens on the Island; does not portray human beings as either Angels or Demons; it provides a new point of departure for teachers and students in their appreciation of this play.

Matt Simpson adopts a thematic approach to the analysis and appreciation of one of Shakespeare's best comedies, which draws out the reality of the characters of the play, even though their setting is fantastical. The issues of wit, madness, gender, love, and deception are handled with insight.

In his close study of Romeo and Juliet Matt Simpson takes up the gauntlet thrown down by critic John Wain who once dismissively asserted that the play posed no questions.

'A Midsummer Night's Dream' is in many ways a unique play; it is one of the few for which there is no immediate source. This is a commentary to the work of a great dramatist who, as the author observes, 'approximates the remote, and familiarizes the wonderful.'

Macbeth Is A Play That Is "Rich In Ambiguities And Ambivalence" Seen By Some Critics As "Over-Praised And Others As The "Greatest" Of Shakespeare's Plays. Matt Simpson Places The Play In The Time Of Its Creation, But Focuses Principally On The Dramatic Moral And Psychological Terrors That Are Its Driving Force. It Is A Portrayal Of The Complex Threads Of Ethical Responsibility And Of How Evil Comes About. Matt Simpson Is The Author Of Shakespeare's Othello In This Series And Is A Poet And Critic.

In this illuminating study Matt Simpson discusses the importance of honour and ritual in the lives of the characters, their need to be seen to be doing what is deemed right and virtuous, but which sometimes causes them to do wrong things for what they think are the right reasons. At the same time he asks us to guard against wanting to interpret the play too readily as if it were a realist text by emphasising its structural features, its patterning of parallels and contrasts, and the skill with which Shakespeare manipulates audience expectations. Ultimately he sees the play to be about redemption and renewal.

T.S. Eliot's 'The Waste Land' is widely considered the most important poem written in English in the 20th Century. In an attempt to see it 'whole', Matt Simpson considers this complex work in great detail, bringing to life its many arcane-seeming allusions and trying to link together the many disparate fragments out of which it is made. He interprets it primarily as an elegy, a despairing window on lost friendship, disillusion, the breakdown of communal values and the poet's own health, and consequently as a quest for purpose, meaning and possible redemption in an intimidating world.

The purpose of this series is to promote the study of writing in the English language through the introduction of the major figures writing in English throughout the ages. They provide an analytical and historical framework for understanding their subjects. "Othello" is one of Shakespeare's most controversial major tragedies. Matt Simpson's exposition of the pivotal role of Iago, the nature of Othello's and Desdemona's relationship - based on "hope more than achievement" - and Shakespeare's treatment of race, is vigorous. He shows how the play is of its time, providing knowledge of its context and meaning, while persuading us that it is also "for all time".

In Matt Simpson's introduction he asks the simple-seeming question - what kind of novel is it? - and offers a variety of possible answers which are both searching and provocative. For him it is primarily a great ghost-story, one that commits the reader to an inescapable conclusion that there is life after death. By careful analysis he shows in detail how Emily Bronte cunningly controls the reader's responses by means of her extraordinary manipulation of time and through multiple forms of narration."

Orient fans rarely get to glimpse truly great footballers, unless, of course, they are playing for the other team. This book pays tribute to 12 of these Orient greats: Peter Allen, Sid Bishop, Steve Castle, Alan Comfort, Stan Charlton, Laurie Cunningham, Tony Grealish, Tommy Johnston, Peter Kitchen, Matt Lockwood, Dennis Rofe, Tommy Taylor.