ROBERT SHAW: An Actor's Life On The Set Of JAWS And Beyond is not your typical biography. Written in a unique narrative style, it tells the story of actor and writer Robert Shaw—best known as Quint in Jaws—from the perspective of the remarkable women who shaped his life, including his mother and his sister, Joanna (pictured with Robert on the set of Jaws).

At its heart are Mrs. Shaw, who raised five children by herself after her husband committed suicide, and Joanna Shaw, a pioneering Cambridge scholar, anti-Apartheid activist, mother of seven, and champion for women’s workplace rights. 

Their intertwined lives unfold across vivid settings: the Orkney Islands, wartime Cornwall, Apartheid-era South Africa, Broadway and London’s West End, and finally Martha’s Vineyard, where Robert worked on Jaws and cowrote the iconic USS Indianapolis monologue.

Robert Shaw was not your typical Hollywood actor: he was a magnet for fascinating people and exhilarating adventures. Women find him sexy.  Men call him a man’s man.  The fact that he was a brilliant actor and a brilliant writer is almost beside the point.