Barry R. Clarke (born 14 March 1959) is a British puzzle designer, theoretical physicist, and Shakespeare authorship theorist.
Born in Llanwrtyd Wells, Wales, to English parents, he was educated at Heckmondwike Grammar School, West Yorkshire. In 1984, he obtained a Master of Science degree by thesis in theoretical physics from the University of Hull and published papers on perturbation methods in quantum mechanics.
He has written and directed several award-winning short films and his comedy sketches have appeared on both BBC and ITV.
In January 2014 he was awarded a PhD degree without amendments from Brunel University on A linguistic analysis of Francis Bacon's contribution to three Shakespeare plays: The Comedy of Errors, Love's Labour's Lost, and The Tempest (see download). Clarke holds the view that since there are no extant letters or prose works by Shakespeare, no test is possible that can exclude the man from Stratford from having contributed to the work under his name. However, there is evidence that it would have been difficult for him to have originated plays like The Comedy of Errors and Love's Labour's Lost which have connections to the exclusive Inns of Court. Also, the writing of The Tempest depended on inside information about the Virginia Company of which Shakespeare was not a member (see download). Clarke argues that these plays were likely acquired later by his company for revision and expansion for the public theater. Use of the Early English Books Online database has also led Clarke to the discovery that there are significant rare phrase matches between the work of Francis Bacon and these three plays. Bacon was a main contributor to the 1594-5 Gray's Inn revels when the first known performance of The Comedy of Errors occurred, and he was a leading member of the Virginia Company at the time of the first known performance of The Tempest.
Since 1989, Barry R. Clarke has written a regular puzzle column for The Daily Telegraph, his puzzle work has been featured on BBC TV Mindgames, and he has published several books of original puzzles. His enigmas have also appeared in The Sunday Telegraph, The Sunday Times, New Scientist, and Reader's Digest. He is currently puzzle columnist for Prospect magazine. Clarke is an innovator of puzzles. While Challenging Logic Puzzles (2003) contains many new logic puzzle forms, Mathematical Puzzles and Curiosities (2013) showcases an original collection of visual lateral thinking puzzles.
Bibliography
- 1993 The Daily Telegraph Book of Brain Twisters, part contributor, Pan. ISBN 0-330-33106-X
- 1994 Test Your Puzzle Power, Ward Lock. ISBN 0-7063-7249-2
- 1994 Puzzles for Pleasure, Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-46634-2
- 2003 Challenging Logic Puzzles (Mensa), Sterling. ISBN 1-4027-0541-7
- 2003 Brain Busters, Dover. ISBN 0-486-42755-2
- 2007 The Shakespeare Puzzle: A Non-esoteric Baconian Theory, Lulu Press. ISBN 978-1-84753-708-9
- 2013 Mathematical Puzzles and Curiosities, Dover. ISBN 978-0486490915
- 2014 Extreme Logic Puzzles, Puzzlewright. ISBN 978-1454909934
Notes
External links
- Download of PhD thesis
- The Puzzling World of Barry R. Clarke
- The Shakespeare Puzzle: A Non-esoteric Baconian Theory (free download)