Category Archives: Legacy

Royal Shakespeare Company’s plans for 2016

All the large Shakespeare organisations are celebrating the four-hundredth anniversary of Shakespeare’s death in 2016 with events to show that Shakespeare is universal, appealing to people of all ages and backgrounds. As befits the best-funded Shakespeare company in the UK … Continue reading

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Memories of Alan Rickman

Another day, another hero gone. On Thursday 14 January 2016 it was announced that actor Alan Rickman had died, just a few days after David Bowie. Both died of cancer, and both were 69. Unlike Bowie, Rickman took some years … Continue reading

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We can be heroes [not] just for one day

The first news I heard on Monday morning, 11 January 2016, was the death of rock star David Bowie. Like most of us, I’ve lived with his songs through my adult life. All day I’ve been hearing his music, people talking … Continue reading

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Shakespeare online for 2016

Into the new year it’s time for starting something afresh. With this being such a big year for Shakespeare, there are several online courses beginning soon that aim to increase participants’ interest in and knowledge of Shakespeare, and I’ve picked … Continue reading

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Uncovering my Stratford roots

On 28 December 1798 William Tompkins was christened in Holy Trinity Church, Stratford-upon-Avon. He was my great-great-grandfather. I came across this fact, as it happened, on 28 December 2015, reading the book written by my cousin, Carolyn Swain in which … Continue reading

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All our yesterdays on film with the BFI

The Christmas pudding’s hardly cold and all those retrospectives on the year just gone are coming at us full tilt. And predictions for next year are following only just behind. As the quatercentenary of his death 2016 is going to … Continue reading

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It’s (almost) Christmas!

With Christmas approaching fast now, I’d like to wish all readers of The Shakespeare blog a very happy festive season. I hope it will be everything you could wish for, and more. To maintain the usual Shakespeare theme, here are some … Continue reading

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Deciphering handwriting in Shakespeare’s world

We only have a few examples of Shakespeare’s handwriting, but those that we have suggest that he wasn’t a particularly neat writer. I always like that section in Hamlet where the Prince explains how he had to remember his lessons … Continue reading

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The Boydell Shakespeare Gallery reincarnated online

The clever people at the University of Texas at Austin have got in ahead of the mass of Shakespeare-related projects to be released in 2016 by launching an online resource that’s designed to appeal to the more serious Shakespeare fan. And the … Continue reading

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Following the Shakespeare Trail

The weather now, in mid-December, is as dreary as Shakespeare describes at the end of Love’s Labour’s Lost. Ways are truly foul and there is little incentive to get anywhere on foot, even though that’s always my favourite method of exploring … Continue reading

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