Initial tests for a full-scale excavation of the site of Shakespeare's final home in Stratford-upon-Avon are due to start today. It is hoped that this ambitious project could reveal new archaeological evidence about the Bard's final years before his death in 1616.

Shakespeare's final home was called New Place, but the house was demolished in 1759 and never rebuilt. Today, the site is owned by the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust and plays host to a beautiful Elizabethan garden.

Experts from Birmingham Archaeology in the UK believe that the remains of the old house are still buried beneath the gardens and it is hoped that the initial tests will lead to a full-scale archaeological dig in 2010.

Shakespeare purchased New Place in 1597, at which time the house was already over 100 years old. In around 1610, he retired from London to Stratford-upon-Avon and took up full-time residency for the final six years of his life.

I will of course be following any developments that arise from this dig. Although we're only in the early stages, I hope that this ambitious project reveals new insights into the life of the world's greatest and most popular playwright.

Watch this blog to follow developments or subscribe to my weekly Shakespeare newsletter.

Photo © Lee Jamieson

It all seems so long ago now that I blogged about the Hamlet skull. David Tennant was one of the RSC's best-ever Hamlets, tickets were impossible to acquire and hordes of Shakespeare newbies were discovering Hamlet for the first time.

Well, now that Shakespeare buzz is back as Tennant is reunited with that skull for a BBC film version of the RSC's production. And once again a real skull will feature in the production. The RSC's Hamlet skull was bequeathed by pianist, Andre Tchaikowsky, who loved Shakespeare and wanted to star as Yorick forevermore.

As it transpires, Tchaikowsky's skull has been used in every performance of Hamlet, despite the RSC claiming that a fake would be used when the production transferred from Stratford-upon-Avon to London.

I can't wait to see Tennant and Tchaikowsky reunited on screen - and I suspect that a whole new generation of Doctor Who loving fans will be discovering Shakespeare for the first time. Good times await.

Photo © Frederick M. Brown / Getty Images

A new book supporting the theory that Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, was the real author of Shakespeare's plays and sonnets has just been released in Germany to critical acclaim.

The Telegraph has reported that Kurt Kreiler's new book, The Man Who Invented Shakespeare, has "uncovered the most conclusive evidence to date that the works of William Shakespeare were in fact written by Edward de Vere." If this is true - if Kreiler has actually managed to uncover new evidence - then I can't wait to get my hands on a copy!

Certainly, De Vere is the strongest candidate in the Shakespeare authorship debate, but I suspect that Kreiler will only add to the mounting circumstantial evidence - compelling as it is, it does not prove a link.

Unfortunately, I can't read German, so I'll have to wait until the English translation becomes available next year. If we have any German-speaking readers who have been reading Kreiler's book, I'd love to hear your thoughts.

This week, the Shakespeare Quartos Archive has lined up a real treat for Shakespeare enthusiasts. They have collated all 32 surviving quarto editions of Hamlet in a free online archive.

This new venture enables you to compare Hamlet online and annotate high-quality page reproductions without the need to source copies from the greatest libraries around the world.

I think that this venture, led by the Bodleian Library in Oxford and the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington DC, is a fantastic new resource in the arsenal of Shakespeare scholarship. Access to original manuscripts is often perceived as near impossible - that barrier has now been removed.

I hope that the accessibility that this new project affords will inspire a new generation of Shakespeare scholars and inspire new studies of Hamlet.

Photo © British Library