Shakespeare: The World as Stage by Bill Bryson

In this book Bill Bryson tackles one of the English language's best- and least-known dramatists, William Shakespeare. Bryson does an excellent job going over the available sources on Shakespeare's life with his typical jovial and enjoyable prose. There's not a lot of analysis of the plays as literature, and there's a fair amount of historical background (I think especially because there are so few hard facts), but a brief and helpful overview of Shakespeare's life.