Kaz Penney launches the Will Shakespeare Mysteries with The Stinky Stolen Toenails
About Author
Discover William Shakespeare as a child in Kaz Penney's new comedy series, the Will Shakespeare Mysteries, beginning with The Stinky Stolen Toenails!
Kaz's love of Shakespeare began in her childhood and has now inspired her first series for children. She hopes the Will Shakespeare Mysteries will be a fun and relatable introduction to Shakespeare.
Kaz studied history at Cambridge and then worked in London before becoming a writer for young adults and adults, and now children. As well as going to the theatre, Kaz loves Jane Austen, cosy crime and all things mysterious and mythological. She lives in Surrey with her family.
Interview
March 2026
Kaz Penney launches the Will Shakespeare Mysteries with The Stinky Stolen Toenails
With a forbidden love, dodgy privies and a mystery to solve, Kaz Penney's Will Shakespeare Mysteries (Andersen Press) is a lively and fun series and a great introduction to the Elizabethan bard.
The first book, The Stinky Stolen Toenails, involves a series of mishaps and mysteries for the young Will Shakespeare to solve, from a missing Christmas pie to a stolen bag of toenails. The story has all the energy and humour of a Shakespeare play, plus a great cast of ordinary, hapless characters and a setting that absorbs the reader in Tudor life. ReadingZone caught up with author Kaz Penney to find out more!
The Stinky Stolen Toenails: Will Shakespeare SHOULD be cleaning out an enormous pile of poo from the privy and bringing the Christmas Pie home from the butcher's - but instead he's decided to solve the mystery of Henry VIII's stolen stinky toenail clippings, and try to get Ronaldo and Judy back together. Oh, and he's also lost the pie . . .
Review: "What an absolute delight of a book! . . . Will Shakespeare Mysteries: The Stinky Stolen Toenails is a fantastic introduction to the world of the Elizabethan bard."
Q&A with Kaz Penney: Exploring the Will Shakespeare Mysteries
"My dream scenario is a child enjoying the Will Shakespeare Mysteries and then, when they study Shakespeare ,
at school, remembering young Will's adventures and that Shakespeare can be fun!"
1. Hello Kaz, thank you for joining us on ReadingZone to introduce Will Shakespeare Mysteries: The Stinky Stolen Toenails! What inspired you to revisit Shakespeare's childhood in this series?
I initially had the idea of writing about a young Will Shakespeare during one of the Covid lockdowns. I'd been reading a book about him, and it struck me how little is known about his childhood in particular. That idea of a blank space waiting to be filled up with a little writerly invention was too tempting to ignore!
I was introduced to Shakespeare by my mum and my nana. They left school at 15 and 14 respectively, but Shakespeare's plays and sonnets stuck with them both throughout their lives, just as they've stuck with me. I think that's because he was, quite simply, extraordinary.
2. What happens in the first Will Shakespeare Mysteries: The Stinky Stolen Toenails, and what else do you have planned for the series?
The adventure begins when Will (who is really supposed to be cleaning the poo out of the privy) tries to prove himself the greatest person-who-solves-crimes in the world by getting involved in the love life of his neighbour, Ronaldo Moundsofgoo.
Ronaldo wants to marry Judy Catapult, but her dad will only agree if Ronaldo hands over the Moundsofgoo Treasure (really, a bag of Henry VIII's smelly old toenail clippings, which people in Stratford-upon-Avon think must have magical healing powers on account of once being attached to a king). The trouble is, the Treasure has been stolen!
Will and best friend Tybalt attempt to track the Treasure down, but they're not prepared for a devious alchemist, a turnip-obsessed noble and a trigger-happy jilted girlfriend. To make matters worse, Judy has kidnapped the Christmas pie! Can Will and Tybalt find the Treasure, reunite Ronaldo and Judy and retrieve the pie before the Big Twelfth Night Party is completely ruined?
I've got LOTS planned for the rest of the series, including some extremely royal but very pongy pearl-encrusted pants and some horrible haggis coming up in book two…
3. Young Will is keen to solve the mystery - but why did you decide to make these detective stories, before genre the was invented, and how do you get around this?
Not only was there no detective fiction in Shakespeare's time, there were no official detectives either (the word wasn't coined until much later). However, there were laws, and there were crimes, and people did try (at least sometimes) to establish the facts of those crimes.
I didn't think it was too much of a stretch to imagine a child (particularly someone like Will Shakespeare) deciding that working out 'who dunnit' might be something fun to do. Most people, children and adults alike, love solving mysteries - I can't imagine Shakespeare would have been any different!
4. Apart from chores like cleaning out the privy, young Will has quite a decent childhood. How have you drawn on what's known about Shakespeare's childhood for the novel?
Most of The Stolen Stinky Toenails is completely made up, but I thought it was important to root the books in the little we do know about Shakespeare's childhood. For example, I've included his father's occupation and involvement in local governance, and the fact that his mother came from a slightly wealthier background. The Stratford-upon-Avon grammar school records of the time have been lost, but expert opinion is that Will must have gone there; Master Hobson (the teacher) is made up, but it's a fact that school would have been a big part of Will's life.
Stratford-upon-Avon, where Shakespeare lived, is a fantastic town! I've visited lots of times and really recommend at least one trip there to see a play and to experience the places where Shakespeare lived and spent time.
5. Readers also learn about life in Tudor England more generally, including what's in Christmas Pie and that boys wore stockings! How did you find out about life at the time?
I'm lucky because I became obsessed with the Tudors from quite a young age. Studying Tudor history at school and university meant I already had a reasonable background knowledge of the period. However, I've also read more recent books on different aspects of Tudor life (and Shakespeare's life, of course). There are also some really helpful things on the internet; digitized copies of parish records from the time, for example, are great for discovering bizarre Tudor names. There really was some unfortunate soul who parents named him Marmaduck.
6. How do you keep to the Tudor theme in the book's formatting, too, and especially with the great illustrations by Sammy Elgie?
I knew as soon as I saw Sammy's brilliant illustrations that she had really captured the Tudor-ness of the text - choosing her was a no-brainer! The art department at Andersen have also been amazing; the black and white Tudor style spine of the books was the idea of the art director, Kate Grove.
7. There's lots to laugh at in the story - does the slapstick comedy tie in to the humour from the time? What made you laugh the most when you were writing it?
There's generally some amount of comedy even in Shakespeare's tragedies, and a lot of it is quite physical or related to bodily functions - the sort of stuff which we might well now think of as appealing to children.
The scenes in The Stinky Stolen Toenails that made me laugh the most were probably Will and Tybalt's visit to Master De Veevil (because of his turnip obsession and 'wind' problems) and the bit where they're trapped in Laurence Fryer's cellar with mountains of his stinky underpants. I also generally love Will's self-aggrandizement and the banter between him and Tybalt. My sense of humour may not be that mature.
8. Readers might also spot some hints of young Shakespeare's future plays - can you tell us how you've done this and why you decided to include these? Are there more to come?
My plan was always to base each of the books in some way around one (or more) of the plays: I love the idea of a young Shakespeare having experiences that then find their way into his adult works.
Readers of The Stinky Stolen Toenails will see some parallels with Romeo & Juliet, either in character names (Ronaldo Moundsofgoo and Judy Catapult), or plot devices (for example, the use of a sleeping potion).
There are definitely more to come; readers might notice a certain Scottish flavour in one of the later books. I hope adults familiar with the plays will enjoy picking up on these echoes!
9. Do you hope that the Will Shakespeare Mysteries will inspire children to go on and find out more about Shakespeare's plays?
Absolutely! Shakespeare is such a huge part of our shared cultural heritage, and at his best I really do think he is for all people, for all time.
My dream scenario is a child enjoying the Will Shakespeare Mysteries and then, when they study Shakespeare at school, remembering young Will's adventures and going into it with the idea that Shakespeare can be fun! Perhaps they will even spot hints of The Will Shakespeare Mysteries when they read the plays . . .
10. What kinds of things do you enjoy doing in your downtime - and does this include watching the Bard's plays?
I'm still a huge Shakespeare fan; I get to the theatre whenever I can, and I enjoy watching TV versions of the plays too. When I'm at home, aside from reading, my hobbies include Lego, jigsaws and playing musical instruments badly (very much channelling my inner Tybalt). Favourite outings (apart from theatre) include walking, museum trips and historic buildings / ruins. It doesn't really matter what state it's in, if it's pre-twentieth century, I will go and see it.
Creative Challenge: Can you help to get young writers started with a writing idea?
I think a letter from a Tudor child to a pen pal complaining about their chores would be a great idea! Other fun challenges are:
- Writing a letter as a Tudor child to a modern child and the other way around, talking about the ways in which life is similar (going to school, for example) and the way in which it's different (no electricity!)
- Writing a newspaper style report (Will's dad reads a pamphlet that's kind of like a newspaper) about a Tudor crime. Maybe someone has stolen the crown jewels, or forged some coins, or drawn a moustache and a pair of big ears on the queen's portrait!
- Writing a letter or diary entry by one of the other characters in the book, for example, Funfair Rosaline, describing the theft of the Moundsofgoo Treasure from their perspective.
School Visits: I offer school events including interactive assemblies and creative writing workshops for smaller groups. Schools can contact me either through Andersen Press or through the email address on my website (www.kazpenney.co.uk) and I'm happy to provide more details and discuss requirements.
Will Shakespeare Mysteries: The Stinky Stolen Toenails
