Geoffrey Shakespeare was born in Norwich. Called to the Bar in 1922, he served as private secretary to David Lloyd George 1921-23 and attended the negotiations which led to the 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty. Briefly Liberal MP for Wellingborough 1922-23 he was subsequently elected for Norwich 1929-45 (as a Liberal National from 1931). Shakespeare served as a junior minister in the National Government at Health, Education and the Admiralty. He wrote an entertaining autobiography Let Candles be Brought in (1949) and outside politics, was a longstanding director of the Abbey National Building Society.