The world shares him and London claims him, but Stratford-on-Avon intends to spend 2016 celebrating Shakespeare as their man: the bard of Avon, who was born there in 1564, and died there 400 years ago. Stratford remained hugely important throughout Shakespeare's life, argues Paul Edmondson, the head of learning and research at the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust. "People have seen Shakespeare as a Dick Whittington figure, who turns his back on Stratford and his family, goes to London to earn his fortune and only comes back to die," he said. "But Stratford is where he bought land and property, where he kept his library, where he lived and read and thought. We are going to spend the year re-emphasizing the importance of Shakespeare, the man of Stratford." The anniversary of the death of the most famous and the most performed playwright in the world will be marked across Britain and the globe. Macbeth is about to open in Singapore, Romeo and Juliet in Brussels. Shakespeare's Globe is completing the first world tour, in which it has taken Hamlet to almost every country. North Korea is still holding out, though. The Globe director recently jokily claimed Shakespeare as a true Londoner. Stratford, however, will be insisting that the town made and educated Shakespeare. "His old school room in Stratford-on-Avon where Shakespeare learned 'small Latin and less Greek' --as kindly laughed at by his friend Ben Johnson--will open its doors, scarred by centuries of naughty schoolboys, to mark 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death," said Paul Edmondson. Shakespeare bought the splendid New Place, the second best house in the town, when he had made his fortune on the London stage. "You don't buy a house like New Place and not live there," Paul said. He believes that after Shakespeare bought it, all his thinking time was spent there, and that the late plays, including The Tempest, were at least planned in his library and probably written there. What made people regard Shakespeare as a Dick Whittington figure?
His life experiences. His achievements in literature. His popularity in London. His contributions to Stratford.