A tour de force of inventive wit "Shakespeare's Dog" is the eccentric and high-spirited story of William Shakespeare and how he came to bed and wed Anne Hathaway. Told from the point of view of the Bard's dog, this astonishing novel of comic bliss, hailed as a triumph of language and an amusing delight.
"'Shakespeare's Dog' is a breakthrough book. It's marvellously inventive, full of juicy delights."
"A rollicking comic novel...a triumph of characterization and language."
"A veritable find, a novel to thoroughly delight and amuse the most jaded of readers...it is lickerish, witty and full of panache."
Shelagh Rogers began her career at CKWS Radio and Television in Kingston, Ontario in country music, news and TV weather.
In the early 1980’s, she joined CBC Radio in Ottawa. She moved to Toronto in 1984. In 1986, she interviewed Peter Gzowski about his plans to raise money for literacy. Peter then invited her to read the listener mail on his program Morningside. It was the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
For ten years, she was host of The Arts Tonight, part of the wildly popular Humline Trio on Basic Black and sidekick to the inimitable Max Ferguson. In 1995, Peter Gzowski created a new role for Shelagh: Deputy Host of Morningside. In September of 2000, Rogers began two years as host of CBC Radio's flagship current affairs program This Morning. Her morning time slot morphed into Sounds Like Canada, which is now based out of Vancouver.
Shelagh adds her voice to a number of causes including mental illness awareness, homelessness, homeless youth training. She has been a literacy volunteer for more than two decades, continuing to make real Peter’s dream of ensuring everyone in this richly blessed country has the right to literacy. In her spare time, being gifted with surplus adipose tissue, she is a passionate ocean swimmer and doesn’t feel the cold at all.
Shelagh is the author of Canada, a book of photographs by the great Winnipeg photographer Mike Grandmaison. It’s published by Key Porter. She also contributed to Nobody’s Mother, a collection of essays by and about women who haven’t had children.
Three recent honours mean a lot to Shelagh: the John Drainie Award for Significant Contribution to Canadian Broadcasting, an Honourary Doctorate from the University of Western Ontario and a Certificate for best spring-roll maker and egg cracker from Mitzi’s Sister Restaurant in Toronto.
Leon Rooke is the author of seven novels, including this 1981 novel
Shakespeare’s Dog, which won the Governor General’s Award. Other major awards Rooke has received include The W.O. Mitchell Prize, the Canada-Australia Literary Prize, and the CBC Fiction Prize. He has published over 300 short stories, as well as poetry and plays, has mentored many of Canada’s most talented writers, and is the founder of The Eden Mills Literary Festival. A native of North Carolina who has lived in Canada for many years, Leon Rooke makes his home in Toronto and Mexico.
FICTION / Literary