Richard is an actor and theatre director, born in India and now lives in London. He has performed all over the world, from the USA to China and many places in between.

His love of Shakespeare began at school and was inspired by his English teacher who encouraged him both as an actor and a lover of literature. Richard has had great joy appearing in a number of Shakespeare films,  among them Much Ado About Nothing and Loves Labours Lost and directed by Kenneth Branagh, who has done so much to promote the plays on film.

The Authorship question really only entered his life at the turn of this century as he dipped into Charlton Ogburn’s massive tome, “The Mysterious Mr Shakespeare”. So much has been discovered since then, as scholarship and investigation into the subject expands, that his interest grew. Previously as an actor performing in the plays he was unconcerned about authorship; “the play’s the thing”, but his interest in social history, the whys and wherefores of particularly the history plays made him look at the author of the First Folio and he chose to investigate the life of the man from Stratford, clearly a business man, but found that not much else is known.

Richard was fortunate to take part in the MA course at Brunel University, The Shakespeare Authorship Question, and this concentrated his mind on the various candidates that were offered up in the course. Richard has had much pleasure working as a director at the Folger over the last 20 years or so and has had an opportunity to study the collection and look at the “Oxford Geneva” bible.

The importance of investigation regarding the plays and their historical setting (and their authorship) led Richard towards Edward De Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford and then the De Vere Society where he is happily now a trustee.

Many people assert that it does not matter who wrote the plays; I cannot agree wholly with that. In life everything matters and has it’s place. The authorship question is very important in the spectrum of knowledge of the Elizabethan society in which the works were written. Their world is worth this investigation.