In this book, they tell you what's going to happen, then it happens, then there's a long bit explaining just how it happened. Perhaps not the formula you would expect to work.

But this is worth doing. Hands up who goes to see one of WS's plays without knowing the story already; if you didn't study it at school, hands up who knows all the subtleties and nuances? This edition gets you the background, the plot, and all the linguistic wriggles (AND the script) while scarcely breaking 200 pages.

Herein you can learn a lot about the chronology of the plays and their performance. The possible political overtones are particularly interesting in a play usually regarded as a bit of a romp. And there are some canny songs.

It's all the more rewarding since it's rather a good play as well, which can't be said for some others in the oeuvre: there's a good fight, some good jokes, a woman who gives more than as good as she gets, a useful dose of melancholy, and a happy ending. And a bunch of lines you're bound to recognise even if you weren't expecting them.

The highlight? Curiously, I think, for me it is the epilogue. Unusual in many respects and rounds out the feelgood of the while thing.

I'll go out of my way to see a stage production - I've seen it before but this book will have made a repeat showing more than twice as rewarding.

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