My Father Had a Daughter: Judith Shakespeare's Tale

by Grace Tiffany

William Shakespeare was father to three children: Susanna, his oldest, and twins Judith and Hamnet. This is Judith's tale... In this wonderfully inventive novel, Grace Tiffany weaves fact with fiction to bring Judith Shakespeare to vibrant life. After a family tragedy, Judith discovers a copy of her father's new play, which seems to make light of her grief. Furious, she follows him to London, intent on sabotaging the performance--but instead, she discovers that she and her father have more in common than she imagined... Through Judith's eyes, we glimpse the world of her famous playwright father--his work, his family, and his inspiration--in a richly atmospheric tale from a bright new literary star.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Shakespeare, Fiction, British Literature, Historical, 16th Century, Adult

304 pages, Paperback

First published May 6, 2003

About the author

Grace Tiffany is an American writer who lives and teaches in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Her novels include MY FATHER HAD A DAUGHTER (2003), WILL (2004), THE TURQUOISE RING (2005), ARIEL (2006), PAINT (2013), GUNPOWDER PERCY (2016), and her latest, THE OWL WAS A BAKER'S DAUGHTER (2025). She has also translated writings by the Argentine author Jorge Luis Borges and the Mexican author Maria Luisa Puga.

Reviews

[Cam Mannino · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm on an escapist Shakespeare jag - watched a 5 part documentary called "In Search of Shakespeare" and "Shakespeare in Love" and then read this book, all in a 10 day period. This is a light, not terribly historically accurate novel from the point of view, obviously, of Shakespeare's daughter, Judith. In reality, I've read, Judith was illiterate (she signed her name with an x as a young adult, I believe) but here she is imaginative and highly literate, acting out plays with her younger brother Hamnet. When he dies following her lead, she is filled with grief and angry when her father writes Twelfth NIght about a sister who's believes her brother is dead. Borrowing heavily from "Shakespeare in Love," Tiffany sends Judith off to London with the intent of getting into a production of the play and somehow ruining it to get back at her absent father. The love interest in the story was strangely unsatisfying, but for me just a chance to hang out in Stratford-on-Avon and inside the Globe for the few hours it took to read the book made the whole giddy ride fun. I like how Tiffany makes Elizabethan language seem natural and readable and though I didn't buy Shakespeare as the loving father,Tiffany got me to suspend my disbelief not only willingly but with pleasure. A good light read when you need to get away from the world a while.

Addendum: Having read the wonderful book by Stephen Greenblatt, Will in the World, I'd have to say that this novel does not make a serious attempt to be historically accurate. Tiffany is working with very few facts from the life of Shakespeare and then just merrily going her own way.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

For anyone who enjoys Shakespeare, this novel will bring to life Renaissance England in the late 1500's. Little is known about Shakespeare's personal life, but author Grace Tiffany has taken what is known and woven a story filled with family strife, romance, suspense and heart-break. Tiffany mastered the feel of the dilect of Middle English without the difficulty of interpretation for the reader of the 21st century. Case in point:

"Do you think I could send a plague on Susanna?" I asked.

"No." Hamnet whispered fearfully. "I mean, do not speak of it."

"I wouldn't," I said. "We might catch it."

"But what of our father? How can we make him leave the city?"

"I will think on it," I said.

The only complaint I have about this book is its anticlimax. After Judith's first visit to London, the story seems to slow down, though it is still entertaining.

[Clare · Rating 3 out of 5]

This story is told from the point of view of Shakespeare's daughter. After I had finished reading this novel, I looked up some of the pertinent facts mentioned in the book and found them to be true, which made this tale even more interesting.

[Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thoroughly enjoying this one, further proof of my love for historical fiction. Only wish I was more knowledgeable about Shakespeare. I'm sure I would appreciate it even more if I was more familiar with his plays.

Finished and highly recommended!

[Diane · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a decent read if you enjoy all the references to Shakespeare and his plays. (I do). Otherwise it might seem dull. It's an interesting idea....Shakespeare's youngest daughter leaves Stratford to go to London and become an actor on her father's stage. Of course women were't allowed to act so she has to dress like a boy. The plot was borrowed a bit from the movie "Shakespeare In Love." I was troubled by Judith Shakespeare's relationship with another actor. It's described as love making but it was very much like rape. It was too creepy for me.

I wonder what the author's motivation was here. All of our information about Judith Shakespeare (and there is very little) leads us to understand that she was illiterate...as were most women in the 16th century. Is this an idealized version of a woman's life? I would rather have read something that was based on fact.

[Susan E · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hmmm... interesting premise... a story told from the point of view of William Shakespeare's daughter. Yet it didn't work for me. Cashing in on the current interest in historical figures is an interesting trend. Apparently we readers are keen to read different stories about Henry VIII's wives and his daughter Elizabeth, so why not Shakespeare? For me, it could have been any angst-against-parents story, just with a historical bent. I did not get attached to Judith, the narrator, and even found her rather annoying. Shakespeare was a dull character. I made myself finish it, thinking there might be some unexpected piece at the end to suprise me. Alas, no.

[Brenda DiVincenzo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although the story ended up to be pretty predictable, I really enjoyed it during the reading. Maybe I would have enjoyed reading "The Bard" more in High School if they taught a little background info on him as well. I'm sure this story is highly fictionalized but what it left me with is.."What was Shakespeare really like and who was he as a man?"

[cheryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75

I read the sequel* https://app.thestorygraph.com/reviews... first. And while that was a 4.5 star read (rounded up for the site that limits folks to full stars), this wasn't as strong of a read for me....3.75 (3.5 is my default "good but not great" read, so it is a notch higher).

This is a fictionalized story of Judith Shakespeare, daughter of the famous Will. (He seems to have had three kids and lost one in childhood, but not much else is fully known.) We see a spirited young girl who marvels at her father's talent and the world of the stage, though she hasn't really seen a full production. She and her brother spend childhood creating their own adventures, a dreamlike youth with a tinge of sadness bc her father is rarely home.

At 14, she has a grand adventure that takes her to London and the theaters her father graced. From there, I'll avoid summary to avoid spoilers.

I'm a character-based reader...I can love a book with strong, fully-fleshed, well-imagined, and (realistically and perfectly) imperfect characters, even with little in the way of plot. This read has a mix of character and plot, and it's an enjoyable trip. I enjoyed watching Jude grow and her personality evolve. I appreciate how...like most of us real people...there are early events that influence the rest of her years.

I don't think you need to be a Shakespeare expert, but i imagine having some knowledge base helps. (I've read a dozen or so of Shakespeare's plays and used 4 in an undergraduate thesis on S's use of silence... there are certainly referrals to plays i don't know, which didn't detract for me, but i can see it being hard to enjoy if you don't have any comfort w his work.)

If you enjoy historical fiction, are ok giving an author some room to depart from the actual history, and just like using books to travel to another place and time, you might enjoy this.

If you're only reading one, I'd read The Owl Was a Baker's Daughter (a tale focused on Judith's later life). But if you're game and the concept intrigued, then I'd recommend both

* Sequel may not be the best word bc either can be read alone...I suppose i had a few spoilers when I read this one having read her later-life tale, but it didn't hurt either read).

[Rhonda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Whether the facts of Shakespeare's life in this book are true or not, this was still an entertaining read.

His daughter, Judith, was a chip off the old block, and acting was destined to be her calling. Through her life, she loved and lost and, in getting older, she also grew wiser in herself. Her father, as absent as he was in her youth, gave her something before he died that was more precious to her than his love - true happiness.

I loved how the author wove fact and fiction together and created this story with characters that were so real and dealt with the small and large pitfalls of life and relationships during this time period. The "stage" also felt like a character, as it was where the players acted and breathed. It was where Shakespeare gave his life and, in turn, where Judith fled when at the lowest point in her young existence.

This story was heartbreaking, frustrating, and lovely all at the same time.

[Sierra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Judith is the ambitious daughter of William Shakespeare whose greatest desire in life is to become an actress in her father's plays. Which, is impossible at the time where actors are exclusively male. She has a twin named Hamnet and an older sister named Susanna. It shows the life of the Shakespeare family through Judith's perspective and he is often absent from her life being in London writing. Judith is revolutionary for her time wishing, dreaming and acting upon her ambitions with fury and passion. I found it slow in the beginning. However, it picks up quickly. I would have also appreciated a summary of the rest of Judith's life at the end of the novel, but it ends with a poetic statement about death and the afterlife. It was an interesting and enlightening read and when you get to the end of the book you will discover that Judith would have made a perfect friend.

[Kris Lackey · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is above all the tale of a daughter’s yearning for her distant father’s presence—and his affection. William Faulkner once told his daughter, in a famous and cruel sentence, “Nobody remembers Shakespeare’s daughter.” Well, now lots of people will remember one of them, Judith, who ventures to London, bobs her hair, and mounts the stage at her father’s theater, the Globe, as a boy actor.
Grace Tiffany is a Shakespeare scholar, so she knows the speech and places of her story intimately. But she wears her learning lightly. The family drama—not the father’s work—drives the novel. She never swerves into sentiment or melodrama, yet the trajectories of daughter and father create moving scenes that stick.
This is a memorable tale. I look forward to its sequel.

[Cricket Muse · Rating 4 out of 5]

Little is truly known about Shakespeare, yet enough for interest in him to stay aflame 400 years later which is one reason My Father Had a Daughter will catch the eye of some readers.

Mixing suppositional fiction with fact and historical details, the author presents Shakespeare through the eyes of his daughter Judith. Judith’s twin was Hamnet who tragically died at 10 years old. Judith bears his death hard in this story and it causes her to live a rather adventuresome life, especially one in the age of queens and kings.

The story does make one ponder how Shakespeare’s absences due to his London life impacted his Stratford family.

[Sue Willey · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a remarkable book - written by a college professor of English who knows Shakespeare thoroughly - his writings, historical times, family - everything needed to make this book feel authentic. It isn't totally, of course - it is about his second daughter Judith and the author creates the story around her. I also really liked Maggie O'Farrell's "Hamnet" and this uses the same actual facts but deals with them differently. The main character is very interesting if not always likeable, finding her way in the world. This deals with Judith's life as a child through her 20s, and I am looking forward to the sequel, "The Owl Was a Baker's Daughter".

[Cecilia Rodriguez · Rating 3 out of 5]

Narrated by Judith Shakespeare, Tiffany immerses the reader into the Elizabethan Era. Tiffany's story is well researched and treat for Shakespeare fans and theater history buffs. Movies with similar theme: Anonymous and Shakespeare in Love

[Bjipson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyable historical fiction, narrated by Shakespeare's daughter Judith who secretly follows him to London and takes on a male persona in order to be able to act in his plays. For fans of Shakespeare, of Elizabethan era history ~

[Kell Andrews · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm still something like 97 on the hold list for Hamnet, so I picked this one up from the Librarian's Choice shelf, and honestly I loved it. This Judith Shakespeare is a charming, independent, imperfect delight.

[Marvin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Grace Tiffany imagines a rich life for William Shakespeare's youngest daughter, Judith, twin sister of Hamnet, whose ghost haunts this novel as it did Maggie O'Farrell's brilliant novel Hamnet. This makes we want to reread that one as well as Tiffany's sequel to this one.

[Alyse DiGaetano Byrne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Slow to start but good once I got into it

[Steph · Rating 3 out of 5]

A novel about Shakespeare's daughter Judith and her relationship with her father.

[Maddy Gray · Rating 4 out of 5]

“The memories we bear inside are more real than the things we touch”

[Patricia Sullivan · Rating 1 out of 5]

I love William Shakespeare, and really wanted to love this novel. Sadly, I was terribly bored. DNF

[ACS Librarian · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love how this book is written. The Shakespearian lilt, the playfulness, and the dramatic intent all seem perfect. The story isn 19t bound by the historical facts of Shakespeare 19s life, and I don 19t have a problem with that. Tiffany has inspired me to find out more about the reality of the family. Her literary license seems reasonable enough, and I know more now than I did when I started reading.

That 19s not what really matters with this book, anyway. Judith Shakespeare is a wonderful character. Her headstrong attitude and conversational flare may be impossible to verify, but that doesn 19t make her any less fascinating. All of her decisions and actions make sense, given how she is portrayed. Her relationship with her family, especially her mother and father, is at turns hilarious and uplifting and heart-breaking.

One important point to note, Judith has her father 19s gift both for the stage and for sexual innuendo. She runs away to London to realize her quest to become an actor, and must disguise herself as a boy to do so. Penniless, she first finds work as a handyman and server at an inn.

1CWhat 19s this dried piece of fish, then? 1D asked a gallant fellow in a plumed hat, as he poked at a slab of overdone smelt on his trencher.

1CSo asked thy mistress when thy trunks slipped off, 1D I said, pouring him an extra half-tankard as his fellows roared.

Although Judith is only 14 at the time, this doesn 19t make her a role model for modern middle schoolers. She has a very frank attitude toward sex, so much so that she 19s willing to trade her virginity in order to secure a role in the premiere performance of her father 19s Twelfth Night. 1CI did not put much store by virginity. I knew my mother was no virgin when she married my father, and from a jesting remark I once heard her make to Aunt Joan, I was not sure she hadn 19t given herself up quite a while before then. I didn 19t see why I should be any purer than she was, and as long as no one knew of it, there might be no harm in the loss. 1D

There 19s harm enough in this story, but not always when expected, and never so much that it dims the beauty of the words, or the passion of the Shakespeare family 19s existence.

[Int'l librarian · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love how this book is written. The Shakespearian lilt, the playfulness, and the dramatic intent all seem perfect. The story isn’t bound by the historical facts of Shakespeare’s life, and I don’t have a problem with that. Tiffany has inspired me to find out more about the reality of the family. Her literary license seems reasonable enough, and I know more now than I did when I started reading.

That’s not what really matters with this book, anyway. Judith Shakespeare is a wonderful character. Her headstrong attitude and conversational flare may be impossible to verify, but that doesn’t make her any less fascinating. All of her decisions and actions make sense, given how she is portrayed. Her relationship with her family, especially her mother and father, is at turns hilarious and uplifting and heart-breaking.

One important point to note, Judith has her father’s gift both for the stage and for sexual innuendo. She runs away to London to realize her quest to become an actor, and must disguise herself as a boy to do so. Penniless, she first finds work as a handyman and server at an inn.

“What’s this dried piece of fish, then?” asked a gallant fellow in a plumed hat, as he poked at a slab of overdone smelt on his trencher.

“So asked thy mistress when thy trunks slipped off,” I said, pouring him an extra half-tankard as his fellows roared.

Although Judith is only 14 at the time, this doesn’t make her a role model for modern middle schoolers. She has a very frank attitude toward sex, so much so that she’s willing to trade her virginity in order to secure a role in the premiere performance of her father’s Twelfth Night. “I did not put much store by virginity. I knew my mother was no virgin when she married my father, and from a jesting remark I once heard her make to Aunt Joan, I was not sure she hadn’t given herself up quite a while before then. I didn’t see why I should be any purer than she was, and as long as no one knew of it, there might be no harm in the loss.”

There’s harm enough in this story, but not always when expected, and never so much that it dims the beauty of the words, or the passion of the Shakespeare family’s existence.

[Valentin Juarez · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book at my school library after winter break.

I wanted to DNF this book but decided to finish it because I didn't wanted to start 2025 in a bad way.

I can't remember the ending well or how it ended, just some details from the book.

However,

I suggest focusing hard while reading it.

If I'm being completely honest, I was not focused.

I wish I could enjoy this book, but couldn't bear

BUT I STILL GAVE THIS BOOK '4 STARS'

[Barb · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are parts of this novel that I thought were very well written and interesting but the story builds tension to the middle and the ending seemed like a bit of an after thought.

Tiffany creates a likeable character in her fictionalized Judith Shakespeare and portrays a sweet and loving sibling bond between Judith and her twin Hamnet. I enjoyed Judith's adventures and her relationship with her father.

But the historical record indicates that Judith Shakespeare appears to have been illiterate, therefore this story could never have taken place. I would have preferred Tiffany to wrap her story around the known history. And if she couldn't do that then perhaps she could have written about a fictional playwright? That would have been my preference.

I think that Grace Tiffany is a talented writer. I hope she continues to work on her craft and produce novels with all of the accomplishments of this one but more consistently. I would try her again if the novel sounded compelling.

[Michael P.]

The story of Shakespeare and one of his daughters, who follows him to London and gets into the sort of mischief a girl in her later teens might get into if she does that. She learns about life and Shakespeare learns about family and responsibility. It is not the sort of book I would read, ordinarily, so it should be reviewed by someone more attuned to this sort of novel. I found it competent and very readable, and have met people who thought it was excellent. It is hard to review this one. It was sent to me by the author, who is a contributing editor with me on one of the Shakespeare journals, so I am not objective and shall not rate it.

[Ami · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have mixed feelings about this book. I feel like it took me longer to read than most books...and that is partially because I wasn't so drawn in that I read it at every opportunity I had. I haven't read too much of Shakespeare's stuff, and maybe that's why. Perhaps if I was more of a Shakespeare fan, this would have captured my interest a bit more. Overall though it was pretty good. It was an interesting read and I learned some things about Shakespeare's life that I normally would not have.

[Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting premise. Judith Shakespeare tells her story (very similar to the movie Shakespeare in Love - the idea of a missing parts of Shakespeare's life being told). It's interesting how the reader is given a look at her father, her twin Hamnet, and her mom.

[Abigail · Rating 3 out of 5]

Definitely not a Young Adult book like it is labeled - far too many historical and Shakespearean references that no 14 year old would catch. If you don't have any knowledge of Shakespeare's work or home life, the story will seem shallow and a fast read - otherwise it's packed with references and hidden meanings that make the story a treasure.

[Beth]

I didn't really like Judith much but I found the story interesting for the world in which it was set and the glimpses it gave of what William Shakespeare as man and father might perhaps have been like.