INSTEAD of being lean, athletic and hungry, Hamlet is fat and thirty. The Merchant of Venice is full of "Bastards on the Rialto" who only care for what money can buy. And, in The Winter's Tale, does the lost princess Perdita speak with a rustic accent when she comes home to Sicily?

In Shakespeare: The Director's Cut, Michael Bogdanov presents nagging insights and difficult questions on every page. Anyone who saw his memorable versions of The Merchant or The Winter's Tale in Ludlow this summer will want to read his further thoughts on both plays.

The book sheds new light on eight of Shakespeare's works. Hamlet is a power struggle in which the podgy, indecisive Prince meddles, to the misfortune of everyone except the foreign invader Fortinbras.

The Tempest is a dream of revenge by a man who was sacked from his job.

Romeo and Juliet is about the poison of money and how it ensnares the young lovers. Macbeth contains justifications for killing that are still paraded today. The horrors of King Lear, which Bogdanov has yet to direct, stem from the belief that love can be valued by land and power.

As for The Taming of the Shrew, that is another revenge dream which shows once again how money can distort human relationships.

One of the many reasons why Shakespeare is so important is that he can be interpreted and explained in hundreds of different ways. Bogdanov's views can never be definitive but, as he has directed Shakespeare more than 50 times, they deserve attention.

He also whets the appetite for what he will do with Twelfth Night and Cymbeline at next year's Festival. Shakespeare: The Director's Cut is published by Capercaillie Books at £8.99 and is available in Ludlow from the Castle and Red Balloon bookshops.