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The Latest Breaking News from Shakespeare

Sir Ian McKellen says it was ‘unexpected’ to play Hamlet in his 80s

The 86-year-old discussed taking on the titular role in Shakespeare’s famous play.

Evening Standard

People Almost Had A Stroke Trying To Read These 108 Hilariously Confusing Pics

We invented both Shakespeare and the word “yeet.” We put a man on the moon but still can’t figure out how to make women’s pockets bigger than two centimeters. So it’s only fitting that the internet we ended up with was never going to be calm or rational. The Facebook…

Bored Panda

Why we love literary anniversaries

Last year marked 250 years since the birth of the English novelist Jane Austen. The Conversation celebrated this important literary milestone with a series of articles and a dedicated podcast, Jane Austen’s Paper Trail. This special year saw a variety of high-profile celebratory events across the country, from regency balls…

The Conversation

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Poem of the week: Now, Mother, What’s the Matter? by Richard W Halperin

An exploration of what constitutes the literary arts – plus all the ‘troubled hearts’ and demons that accompany it – through the lens of Shakespeare’s Hamlet

The Guardian - UK

It takes many ghosts to make a story: how Maggie O'Farrell’s Hamnet takes from – and mistakes – Shakespeare

In her eighth novel Hamnet, Maggie O’Farrell imagines the short life and tragic death of Shakespeare’s only son, aged 11, in 1596. Although it is not known how Hamnet died, O’Farrell attributes his death to the plague. She creates a visceral and affecting portrait of his swift decline and the…

The Conversation

Paul Mescal on grief in Hamnet

Paul Mescal says Hamnet’s ending shows the impact of grief and the visually striking image of William Shakespeare covered in cracking clay at the end helps to portray this.

BANG Premier

‘That’s not how I pictured it’ – why book-to-film adaptations so often disappoint

As Hamnet arrives on the big screen, many fans of the book may feel a familiar mix of excitement and trepidation. They may wonder how the film will bring to life Maggie O'Farrell’s intimate portrayal of Shakespeare’s wife, Agnes, and the loss of their son.

The Conversation

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Hamnet review – Oscar-primed Shakespeare film isn’t as manipulative as its critics claim

4/5 Jessie Buckley, already the Best Actress Oscar frontrunner, is remarkable as William Shakespeare’s wife Agnes in Chloé Zhao’s speculative grief drama

The Independent UK

Hamnet: by centring Anne Hathaway, this sensuous film gives Shakespeare’s world new life

For films and books about Shakespeare’s life, there is little source material to draw on beyond the few known facts of the great writer’s parentage, hometown, marriage, children, property and death. Shakespeare biopics therefore require considerable speculation and invention on the part of writers and directors.

The Conversation

Cod conflict between two Nato members

Brief letters: Allies at war | Shakespeare on tyranny | Leicester greetings | Winter style | Road sign supplements

The Guardian - UK

‘Melancholy magic’: how Judi Dench and a host of stars came under the spell of the greatest comedy in history

The Twelfth Night Reunion gathers some of the grandest names in British theatre, including Simon Callow and Stephen Fry, to explain why Shakespeare’s play continues to bewitch audiences

The Guardian - UK

Shakespeare fans can book stay in Herefordshire farmhouse featured in Hamnet this spring

Stays at the Grade II-listed Jacobean farmhouse start from £1,547

The Independent UK

‘Shakespeare? I’d have a go!’ Paul Chuckle on his 50-year comedy career and his new gangster film

As he dons sunglasses to play a tough guy on screen, the actor, AKA Paul Elliott, answers your questions about moustaches, Gogglebox, Bond, Judge Jules, Liam Gallagher and missing his brother, Barry

The Guardian - UK

Top 2026 travel trends: Glowcations, literary tourism and year-round Alpine escapes

From visiting places associated with favourite books to travelling with multiple generations- these are the top trends likely to shape travel in 2026.

Euronews

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The Guardian - UK

Need cheering up after a terrible year? I may have just the story you’re looking for

A single act of kindness reminded me that, despite so much evidence to the contrary, the better angels of our nature are not necessarily doomed, says Guardian columnist Martin Kettle

The Guardian - UK

TV tonight: horny, ludicrously fun thriller The Hunting Wives

Brittany Snow and Malin Akerman star in a tantalisingly trashy series. Plus: Judi Dench digs deep into a family mystery. Here’s what to watch this evening

The Guardian - UK

‘The best thing I have ever witnessed on stage’: readers’ favourite theatre of 2025

A transcendent new take on King Lear, a thrilling Evita and a show at Glasgow’s revamped Citizens that reduced one viewer to a ‘blubbering wreck’ are among your highlights

Evening Standard

Johnny Flynn's guide to London: shopping at Patina and dinner at Pivaz

The Goodbye June actor used to make money busking, thinks mudlarking is a great first date and loves Clapton’s Mangal restaurants

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Evening Standard

Twelfth Night at the Barbican review: A delightful maximalist feast

4/5 Director Prasanna Puwanarajah’s Shakespeare festivities are striking if a little over-stuffed in places

BANG Premier

Paul Rudd told what lie about Sir Ben Kingsley at the start of his career?

Anaconda actor Paul Rudd lied about starring in a Shakespeare production directed by Sir Ben Kingsley at the start of his career.

The Independent UK

Tourists will now be charged more than £10 to visit famous Juliet balcony

Shakespeare fans will have to pay to enter the courtyard for the first time

The Guardian - UK

Judi Dench says she ‘can’t remember what I’m doing tomorrow’ but can still recite Shakespeare

The actor has said she is increasingly facing problems with her memory as well as failing eyesight, struggling to remember appointments or see faces

The Independent UK

Judi Dench reveals worrying extent of her short-term memory loss

IN FULL

The Independent UK

Judi Dench reveals she can still remember Shakespeare but not ‘what I’m doing tomorrow’

Oscar winner describes her degenerative eye condition as a ‘crusher’

The Conversation

From the Miller’s Tale to King Lear’s roaring sea, a history of flooding in literature

Geoffrey Chaucer’s Miller’s Tale is renowned for its salacious storyline of sexual misadventure. Set in 14th-century Oxford, it tells the tale of John the Carpenter, a husband so terrified that another “Noah’s flood” is coming to drown the world that he sleeps in a basket in the attic – freeing…

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