POD: Book Clubs

Hamnet

Tender and moving

Maggie O’Farrell’s Hamnet is a fictionalised account of the short life of Shakespeare’s 11 year old son. Winner of the 2020 Women’s Prize for Fiction, the chair of judges Martha Lane Fox said O’Farrell’s novel was a “truly great” work of fiction and an “exceptional winner”.

England, 1580: The Black Death creeps across the land, an ever-present threat, infecting the healthy, the sick, the old and the young, alike. A luminous portrait of a marriage, a shattering evocation of a family ravaged by grief and loss, and a tender and unforgettable re-imagining of a boy whose life has been all but forgotten, and whose name was given to one of the most celebrated plays of all time, Hamnet is mesmerizing, seductive, impossible to put down.

Part of our ‘Beyond the Book’ Series View

PODCASTS

Maggie O’Farrell on her new novel, Hamnet

(12 mins )

Mariella Frostrop talks to Maggie O’Farrell about her book, how she was emotionally affected by writing about Hamnet’s death and her take on the importance of historical fiction. First 12 mins of the podcast.

Play

Maggie O’Farrell on “Hamnet”

(35 mins)

Longer interview. Maggie O’Farrell talks about how the idea for “Hamnet” came to her, the way she imagines Shakespeare and his family, and what she learned in the process of writing the book. She is interviewed by Barbara Bogaev for Shakespeare Unlimited.

Play

Hamnet

(13 mins )

The Hamlet Podcast looks at the influence of Hamnet Shakespeare (1585-1596). We look at how his death may have influenced his father’s work, as well as a variety of more recent creators.

Play

Book Review. Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell

(21 mins )

Anna and Annie of Books On The Go, review their book of the week Hamnet. Start at 7mins 30secs.

Play

VIDEOS

Maggie O’Farrell at Damian Barr’s Literary Salon

(29 mins)

Watch Maggie give her first ever reading from Hamnet and her conversation with Damian Barr.

Watch

Review: Hamnet

(10 mins)

Enthusiastic review of the book from Books and Bao. A modern masterpiece that retells and reframes the story of Shakespeare’s wife, Agnes, and their children with consideration and grace. A beautiful tragedy unlike anything else.

Watch

ARTICLES

Guardian review of Hamnet

O’Farrell explores the lives of the playwright’s family and the death of his only son. She has placed the bit players of the Shakespeare story centre stage, while the dramatist himself is never even named. This is primarily a portrait of a woman and her three children.

Read Article

Irish Times Review

Historical novel connects death of a son with the birth of Hamlet Book. Maggie O’Farrell recreates Shakespeare’s family and that of Elizabethan England by John Self.

Read Article

Maggie O’Farrell wins Women’s prize for fiction with ‘exceptional’ Hamnet

Hamnet beat novels including the third in Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall trilogy, The Mirror and the Light, and Bernardine Evaristo’s Booker prize-winning Girl, Woman, Other, to win the £30,000 award. Alison Flood for the Guardian.

Read Article

Hamnet Book Club Questions

Sally Flint’s book discussion questions on Maggie O’Farrell’s Hamnet.

Read Article

XTRA

Authors Website Maggie O’Farrell

Hamnet: a play for Shakespeare’s forgotten son

King John, Constance’s Grief

All is True film

The Law of the Heart

A powerful love story

Boris Starling is an award-winning novelist, non-fiction writer and screenwriter who has reached the Sunday Times and New York Times bestseller lists. His debut novel Messiah was made into a primetime BBC1 series which ran for five seasons. The Law of the Heart is his ninth novel and inspiration for the title comes from ‘one of the foundations of modern cardiac medicine… known as the law of the heart’, first published by his great grandfather Ernest Starling in 1912.

For rollercoaster designer Theo, living on the edge is just part of the job. He’s used to wandering the world perfecting thrills, his heart immune to commitment. But then a commission in repressive North Korea exposes him to emotions he’s never dared to feel. Tour guide Min has a soul that wants to soar, but she knows it’s safer to build walls around her heart and mind. Skilled in showcasing the mesmerising beauty of capital city Pyongyang without revealing its darker secrets, she introduces Theo to a country he will never forget―and begins to question her policy of quiet compliance.

Part of our ‘Beyond the Book’ Series. View

The Vanishing Half

Family and identity

From The New York Times-bestselling author of The Mothers, a stunning new novel about twin sisters, inseparable as children, who ultimately choose to live in two very different worlds, one black and one white. Weaving together multiple strands and generations of this family, Brit Bennett produces a riveting, emotional family story and a brilliant exploration of the American history of passing. Looking well beyond issues of race, The Vanishing Half considers the lasting influence of the past, as it shapes decisions, desires and expectations, and explores the multiple reasons why people sometimes feel pulled to live as something other than their origins.

Part of our ‘Beyond the Book’ Series. View

My Dark Vanessa

A darkly, compelling debut

My Dark Vanessa is the harrowing tale of fifteen year old Vanessa Wye’s relationship with her forty five year old English teacher, Jacob Strane and the lasting impact it has on her life. Kate Elizabeth Russell resists the insistence on black and white in sexual dealings – instead inhabiting the mind of a vulnerable teenager, offering insight into how black might feel like white, how abuse may be taken for romance – and how this lie could be desperately clung onto into adulthood. My Dark Vanessa reveals a slow journey towards a different understanding

Although this book seems very current, with its themes of manipulation by an older man, Kate Elizabeth Russell actually took 18 years to write this novel that has been labelled Lolita for the #MeToo society. Like American Dirt, this novel too has courted controversy: a seven figure advance, allegations of plagiarism that got it dropped from Oprah’s book club, and questions about whether the novel was based on Russell’s own experience and the implication that she needed to prove her credentials for writing about sexual trauma. It is somewhat ironic that in writing a book about a woman who doesn’t want to come forward about abuse, she is then forced to reveal her own trauma. As she says on her website, “my greatest wish is that My Dark Vanessa will spark conversation about the complexity of coercion, trauma, and victimhood, because while these stories can feel all too familiar, victims are not a monolith and there is no universal experience of sexual violence”. See her website (link in Xtra) for the complete piece.

Stephen King described it as ‘A hard story to read and an even harder one to put down … a package of dynamite’. See what you think.

Part of our ‘Beyond the Book’ Series. View

Hamnet

Tender and moving

PODCASTS

(12 mins )

(35 mins)

Kindle Paperwhite

(13 mins )

(21 mins )

VIDEOS

(29 mins)

(10 mins)

HelloFresh meal plan offers

ARTICLES

XTRA

Authors Website Maggie O’Farrell

Hamnet: a play for Shakespeare’s forgotten son

King John, Constance’s Grief

All is True film

User Settings