Hilary Mantel's dark, unsettling and gleefully tasteless new novel about spiritualism, Hell and the condition of contemporary England is part ghost story, part mystery, and as alarmingly funny as it is disturbing. Shakespeare makes an appearance - he passes in the spirit world as 'Wagstaffe', something of a louche lad about town - and is caught on tape having a squabble with another spirit:

Wagstaffe: This sceptred isle . . .
Morris: My sceptred -
Wagstaffe: This other Eden -
Morris: My sceptred arse.

LRB 19 May 2005 | PDF Download