Hello and welcome to another special bonus episode of Ask Penguin from the Penguin podcast.

I'm Rihanna Dylan and today I am delighted to bring you a little bit more from our wonderful and fascinating conversation with Jodi Pico.

A little while ago, the multi-award winning author came into our book-filled studio to talk about her new book by any other name.

The dazzling historical novel tells the story of two women, centuries apart, one of whom is

Amelia Bissano, who might just be the real author of Shakespeare's plays. In our historical fiction

special, we spoke with Jodie all about her detailed research into Amelia

and the evidence that helped her with her Shakespearean authorship theory, and let me tell you,

it was very convincing. Throughout the novel, Jody attributes to her female protagonists

many lines that she believes could only have been composed

by a woman. So I asked her which ones she really believes were written by Amelia.

I truly believe that there are some plays that absolutely were her. You know, Hamlet, I've sort of

set up for you a little bit based on circumstances in her life.

When you add to that the fact that with the rise of female Elizabethan and Shakespearean scholars,

there's been a lot of talk about poor Ophelia in Hamlet and why she is suicidal.

And a lot of women who are studying that play as academics believe that Ophelia is pregnant and unmarried.

And if you read the text, Hamlet is very bawdy.

He probably was, you know, trying to fool around with her.

And by the time she finds out she's pregnant, Hamlet is pretending to be mad.

Everybody else is in a major political scheme.

She tries to get help from Polonius, from Laertes, from Gertrude, you know, the queen.

Everyone turns her away.

And ultimately, there's that beautiful scene where she has gone truly insane.

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