One of the most searingly beautiful Shakespeare, love and detective stories ever written -- ANTHONY SELDON, author and historian A deeply involving, humane book: Greg Doran slowly unwraps the still open wound of bereavement while chronicling with liveliness and wit a long and varied pilgrimage into the heart of the inspiration that fuelled decades of brilliant work. The conversation between Doran and his life-partner, Antony Sher, especially in Sher's last illness, forms a strong, sombre groundbass to the fascinating narrative of Doran's exploration of the varied fortunes of Shakespeare's First Folio: two interwoven loves -- ROWAN WILLIAMS, former Archbishop of Canterbury Walking Shadow is a book of two parts: the first almost unbearably moving, the second uplifting, as were taken on a Shakespearean odyssey to the four corners of the globe. Combined, it explores deep grief, letting go and deciding to live. Magnificent -- DANIEL EVANS, Co-Artistic Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company From the last journey of his husband Antony Sher which he intimately describes, Greg Doran converts his grief into a solo journey, to see as many copies of Shakespeares First Folio as possible. He takes us with him across centuries and continents, gathering stories of the eccentrics, scoundrels and scholars into whose hands the Folios fell, speculating about each ink blot, wine stain and possible tear drop that mark the ancient pages. His is the best kind of scholarship, born of true curiosity and openness. A deeply enjoyable and eclectic history lesson with many an anecdotal diversion. Inevitably grief ambushes him at times and then so often it is a quote from Shakespeare that restores him. I cant think of anyone whose inner resources and particular set of talents better equip them to take on this quest -- HARRIET WALTER Both Greg Doran and his life-partner, the late Antony Sher, are memorable storytellers whether recounting (in Shers case) his final months, or (in Dorans) a subsequent and global Shakespearean quest. Drawing on both their voices and journeys, Walking Shadow, in telling of things dying and things newborn, is a haunting, uplifting, and beautiful book -- JAMES SHAPIRO, author of 1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare A profoundly moving memoir about grief, mortality and continuity This book narrates how, after Tony Shers death from cancer in 2021, his devastated widower consciously used his continuing passion for Shakespeare as a prompt to find a new life, embarking on a quest to visit all the surviving Folios around the globe. Walking Shadow is at once a meticulous contribution to our understanding of Shakespeares place in the world, and a searching meditation on how great drama can enable us to understand and to negotiate even the most cruel personal losses -- MICHAEL DOBSON, Director of the Shakespeare Institute There was always a third person in Gregory Dorans marriage to Antony Sher: Shakespeare, who brought them closer and closer together. In Walking Shadow, Sher speaks from beyond the grave, with characteristic and unsparing directness, in his Dying Diaries. After Shers death, Doran throws himself into a wonderfully various and enlightening global quest to see as much as possible of Shakespeares literary remains, in the year of the 400th anniversary of the First Folio. Only when that quest is complete is he ready to read the Dying Diaries for the first time. Walking Shadow is an utterly personal work with much to teach everyone, and not just about Shakespeare. It is a record of a remarkable marriage and Shakespeares part in it. It has the power to rend and repair the heart -- EWAN FERNIE, Fellow and Chair of Shakespeare Studies at the Shakespeare Institute Sir Greg Dorans intimate, humorous, yet profoundly moving account of the final illness and subsequent death of his husband, the actor Sir Antony Sher, followed by Dorans worldwide journey in search of every surviving copy of the Shakespeare First Folio of 1623, deserves to be recognised as a classic testament of grief and ultimate healing -- STANLEY WELLS, Honorary President of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust Greg Doran is probably the only theatre professional in history to have directed all of Shakespeares plays and now he has seen almost all the surviving copies of the great First Folio that gathered and preserved those plays. HIs love of Shakespeare and of his late partner Sir Antony Sher shines from every page of this book as brightly as his knowledge of the works and their insights into the human heart -- JONATHAN BATE, author of Mad About Shakespeare Walking Shadow is as much an epic journey through the wounded heart as it is through Shakespeares ever-resonating global legacy; a stupendous, candid and deeply humane monument to the two greatest loves of Sir Gregory Dorans life. Dorans quest for the Bards First Folios is a story of resilience through tragedy, of the timeless instinct to memorialise the human bonds that sustain us, and of the healing power of hope. A stunning achievement and a vital literary moment in the history of Shakespeare scholarship -- CHRIS LAOUTARIS, author of Shakespeare's Book: The Intertwined Lives Behind the First Folio Walking Shadow, the story of Greg Dorans quest in search of all extant Shakespeare Folios in Britain and America, is given an overwhelming emotional charge by being rooted in the heartbreaking journals he and Antony Sher kept during the latters agonising death from cancer. Shakespeare was at the very centre of their lives and every page of Walking Shadow is profoundly informed by that mutual passion. Doran has written a book whose reach goes even beyond Shakespeare, but in doing so, illuminates him deeply from within -- SIMON CALLOW Grief is one of Shakespeares most sublime and visceral themes. Throughout this unforgettable In Memoriam, Greg Doran becomes inspired by his grief to pay tribute to a great actor, his late partner Tony Sher, and also to the inextinguishable fascination of the First Folio four hundred years after publication. A love-letter to Sher in his final days, and Shakespeare through the centuries, Walking Shadow is a must-read for every avid theatre-goer -- ROBERT McCRUM, author of Every Third Thought: On Life, Death, and the End-Game Beautiful, haunting, and healing. Like Shakespeares plays themselves, Doran delivers a complex gift that will continue to inspire long after the last page -- AYANNA THOMPSON, Regents Professor of English at Arizona State University and author of Blackface Brutally, beautifully moving, funny and honest. A love letter to loves lost and love everlasting. A privilege to read -- LUCIAN MSAMATI This is one of the most moving books you'll ever read about Shakespeare. Greg takes you achingly through the final days of his life with Tony Sher, and the sense of grief and desperate loss that comes from love; he then embarks on a global search for as many copies of the First Folio as he could find - all of them subtly different - and he finds ultimately that Shakespeare brings with him the ability to heal -- LORD CHRIS SMITH, Chancellor of the University of Cambridge Sadness there is, of course, lots of it, but Sher's writing, even when he's dying, has the same kind of restless energy that shot through his acting and art; every setback and regret, every terror and amusement (and there are some) is held unblinkingly up to the light A deeply moving last offering from one of theatre's greatest partnerships There is lots of fun to be had in the stories of the scholarly obsessives, millionaires and occasional fraudsters who have pursued this great book over the centuries -- Tom Ward * The Oldie * A very moving record of one persons confrontation with death and of his partners attempt to cope with survival A human story about how grief over loss of a loved one can be turned into a seemingly impossible quest and a search for consoling hope -- Michael Billington * Guardian *
