UCB Professor Emeritus Hugh Richmond has degrees from Cambridge (UK) and Oxford (UK), with diplomas from the Universities of Munich (Germany) and Florence (Italy). His books cover love poetry, landscape poetry, Milton, Shakespeare’s comedies and histories, and the stage history of Shakespeare. He has personally staged forty Renaissance plays, edited two Shakespeare histories. He has produced video documentaries about Chaucer, Shakespeare and Milton, and helped rebuild Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in London, where he staged Much Ado.
Written in the wake of the sexual revolution of the 60s, British ex-pat Richmond, teaching apparently at Berkeley across from San Francisco, gives a fantastic analysis of Shakespeare in terms of sex and gender. This is a wonderfully written manual for healthy romantic relationships - how to avoid Romeo and Juliet fatality, the pleasure of being with strong women (Beatrice, Rosalind), and the pitfalls of being an idiot (Romeo again). I really found this to be a perfect balance between literary criticism and a pleasurable interpretation of the Bard's work. Very, very highly recommended if you can find a copy!