This author knows her stuff! Reading Stephanie Cowell on London is like being there. A wonderfully evocative tale of life during Shakespeare's time. Not to be missed by those who love period fiction done expertly. A gifted writer.

Stephanie Cowell's "The Physician of London" is the second novel in a trilogy, and continues the story begun in "Nicholas Cooke." One of its themes is the tremendous conflict between religion and science during the dark era of the English Civil War. Nicholas Cooke is both a priest and a scientist. The life of the day is brilliantly, vividly described, and we relive the terrors and the joys of these insightfully, incisively wrought people, so real that we think they actually lived, and some of them are, of course, historical. The book is exciting, and filled with action as well as philosophy, and engrossing from beginning to end. Stephanie Cowell's writing is magnificent. There are lessons here, in the power struggles of Charles I and Oliver Cromwell, in the search for scientific truth by Nicholas Cooke, in this tale of bigotry and corruption and love, for our own time. You will love this superb novel.--Robert Blumenfeld

When I began reading the first chapters of Nicholas Cooke, I wasn't sure I liked his character. He was so hot-tempered and didn't seem to appreciate some people as he should have. As I continued to read on into the Physician of London, and as Nicholas continued to mature into the man he became in The Physician of London, I found myself more and more involved with this man and his life. I realized that his character, his desires and dreams and his conflicts, reminded me of my own desires and dreams and conflicts. Like a good cook, Stephanie Crowell flavors the book wonderfully with the Elizabethan/Stuart atmosphere and writes in such a way as to involved the reader not only in the main character, but all the characters. She has made this reader at least impatient for the publishing of the last book in the trilogy of Nicholas.

Stephanie Cowell has written a materpiece which is sure to be revered in years to come. She is an enormousuly talented writer of both novels and articles. Her novels transport their readers to another time and place; the time period of the great Queen Elizabeth I. Ms. Cowell captivates her audience through her mastery of the written word.

This beautifully realized and passionate fictional account of the young Shakespeare's life is rich with period detail that transports the reader back in time to Elizabethan England. The book is also filled with well-wrought, complex characters -- the actors, writers, and others whom Shakespeare knew -- and their relationships with one another. For anyone who loves historical fiction or Shakespeare, or wonders about the "Dark Lady" of the sonnets, this book will be mesmerizing. Highly recommended.

Stephanie Cowell's tender, deeply felt, beautifully written "The Players: A Novel of the Young Shakespeare" is a wonderful fictionalized biography, sweet, yearning and passionate. It is the story of Shakespeare's growing up and of his love for the Earl of Southampton and the celebrated Dark Lady of the Sonnets. Marlowe and Ben Jonson are two more of the brilliantly drawn characters, and the whole life of Elizabethan England, the bustle of the busy port of London, and of the art and theater of those days is so really evoked that we feel we are there. My emotions were aroused, and I found the story evocative of my own life, of feelings I have had, the events being so engrossing, so engaging and involving, that I was deeply moved. The Historical Notes at the end of the book are also fascinating. Read this book! You will love it, as I do.--Robert Blumenfeld

Shakespeare came to life as never before. A deep portrait of a sensitive young artist finding himself in his writing. The love triangle was magical.