After the film's release, certain publications, including "Private Eye", noted strong similarities between the film and the 1941 novel "No Bed for Bacon", by Caryl Brahms and S. J. Simon, which also features Shakespeare falling in love and finding inspiration for his later plays. In a foreword to a subsequent edition of "No Bed for Bacon" (which traded on the association by declaring itself "A Story of Shakespeare and Lady Viola in Love") Ned Sherrin, "Private Eye" insider and former writing partner of Brahms', confirmed that he had lent a copy of the novel to Stoppard after he joined the writing team, but that the basic plot of the film had been independently developed by Marc Norman, who was unaware of the earlier work.