Reading Room - Verse-Speaking

John Barton, Playing Shakespeare (1984) – hugely influential handbook by RSC guru, linked to superb television masterclass of the same year

Cicely Berry, The Actor and the Text (1992) – the gospel according to the RSC's hugely respected voice coach. See also her set of practical DVDs, The Working Shakespeare (2004)

Peter Hall, Hamlet's Advice to the Players (2003) – prescriptions of the RSC founder and self-confessed 'iambic fundamentalist'

Patsy Rodenburg, Speaking Shakespeare (2002) – practical advice from another leading voice coach

George T. Wright, Shakespeare's Metrical Art (1988) – the best book on how Shakespeare's rhythmic art actually works

There are hundreds more fine books on Shakespeare, but anyone who reads The RSC Shakespeare: Complete Works from cover to cover and then devours a reasonable proportion of the above will have earned the right to consider themselves an exceptionally highly informed Shakespearean.