Astonishingly, Dr Bairstow has declared a holiday. Even more astonishingly - he's paying for it.

Needless to say, there are strings attached. They have to record the 1601 performance of Hamlet, with Shakespeare himself in the role of the Ghost.

It doesn't go well, of course. With Dr Bairstow and Mrs Mack turning a simple visit to a street market into a public brawl, Professor Rapson inadvertently stowing away on a vessel bound for the New World, and Shakespeare himself going up in flames, it would seem that Max, of all people, is the only one actually completing the assignment.

Readers love Jodi Taylor:

'Once in a while, I discover an author who changes everything... Jodi Taylor and her protagonista Madeleine "Max" Maxwell have seduced me'

'A great mix of British proper-ness and humour with a large dollop of historical fun'

'Addictive. I wish St Mary's was real and I was a part of it'

'Jodi Taylor has an imagination that gets me completely hooked'

'A tour de force'