Ben is an actor, author, creative producer, patron of Shakespeare Week, special advisor to the new Shakespeare North Playhouse, and curator of theShakespeareEnsemble.com Ben and his father David Crystal have collaborated on several books: Shakespeare's Words (Penguin) The Shakespeare Miscellany (Penguin), and The Oxford Illustrated Shakespeare Dictionary (OUP, shortlisted for the Educational Book of the Year Award 2016) Ben's solo writing includes Lockdown Shakespeare (Arden, forthcoming, 2022) Shakespeare on Toast (Icon, nominated for the Educational Book of the Year Award 2010) and the four titles of the Arden Springboard Shakespeare series: Hamlet, Macbeth, A Midsummer Night's Dream, and King Lear. David Crystal is known throughout the world as a writer, editor, lecturer, and broadcaster on language. His work on Shakespeare includes Pronouncing Shakespeare, Think on My Words: Exploring Shakespeare's Languages, and, with Ben Crystal, Shakespeare's Words, The Shakespeare Miscellany, and The Oxford Illustrated Shakespeare Dictionary. He has written or edited over 100 books and published numerous articles for scholarly, professional, and general readerships on the history and development of English, including The Stories of English, How Language Works, Evolving English, Spell It Out: The Singular Story of English Spelling and Wordsmiths and Warriors: The English-Language Tourist's Guide to Britain, with Hilary Crystal.
