Hamnet

In Maggie O’Farrell’s second historical novel, Hamnet, one of our greatest living writers tells the story of the short life of Hamnet Shakespeare, the Bard’s only son, in 1596. At the heart of this book is grief and the way Shakespeare, his wife Agnes (more famously called Anne Hathaway) and their family find their way through it. Four years later Shakespeare wrote Hamlet, giving his tragic hero a variation of his dead son’s name…

~ Her Majesty Queen Camilla

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Featured in: Season 5

Publish Date: 2020 Awards: 2021 British Book Awards Fiction Book of the Year, 2020 Waterstones Book of the Year, 2020 Women’s Prize for Fiction

Inspired by Shakespeare’s most famous play, Hamnet is the story of a boy whose life has been forgotten, but whose name has echoed throughout the centuries as one of the greatest plays ever written. Reimagining the life of Hamnet Shakespeare, prematurely dead at the age of eleven in 1596, O’Farrell creates an extraordinarily tender and imaginative tale.

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Maggie O’Farrell

Hamnet

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Maggie O’Farrell

On William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare’s House

Henley Street, Stratford

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Hamnet

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Maggie O’Farrell

On Grief

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Hamnet

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Maggie O’Farrell

On Agnes

Viola and Sebastian

Twelfth Night

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Hamnet

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On Lessons Learnt from Writing Hamnet

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On Book Recommendations

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