I also love Shakespeare, being a regular attendee at the RSC in Stratford, and love all things to do with Shakespeare, so I was keen to see what this was about.

And oh my. What a book. It is quite extraordinary. O’Farrell’s writing is so lush and lustrous and lyrical. She conjures up breath-taking images and uses such startling metaphors and similes.  And the portrayal of the death of Hamnet (alias Hamlet — the two names were interchangeable in Shakespeare’s day) is simply heart-breaking.

You mustn’t miss the Author’s Note at the end, in which O’Farrell accounts for why the mother is called Agnes and not Anne, as we would usually know her (her father refers to her as Agnes in his will). She also explains how the book is ‘a work of fiction’ and the result of her ‘idle speculation’ as to how and why Hamnet died; there is very little historical evidence about the short life of this boy who died in Stratford, Warwickshire, in the summer of 1596.

So as an account of Shakespeare’s life, or rather his wife’s (interestingly, Shakespeare himself is not the main character here, but simply an absent father and husband who is busy carving out a career for himself in London), and the effect that the death of a child can have on a family and mother, it is quite stunning.

For top quotes, you can just about dip in anywhere, on any page, and find something beautiful.