Hamnet was the winner of the Women's Prize for fiction in 2020. I'd seen it around, in bookshops, in charity shops, reviews online, but something held me back, I just didn't fancy it somehow. When I saw that it had been made into a film and that Jessie Buckley had won Best Actress Oscar for her role as Agnes, I thought I might like to watch it. I always prefer to read a book before watching a movie adaptation and that's how I came to read Hamnet.
I absolutely loved it. The book is written in two timelines: as Agnes is meeting her husband, and the death of Hamnet. Historical fiction, based on the death of William Shakespeare's son, what happened before and what happened afterwards. In truth, we know that his son died but there's no record of how or why he died, so it's a work of fiction, but as in most cases with historical fiction, truths are peppered throughout the story. It was only last November that we visited Stratford-upon-Avon, we looked around the house where Shakespeare was born and lived so I was able to visualise the house and surrounding area as it was described in the book, it brought it to life.
I'd been waiting for the movie to be released on Sky but before that happened, I got the chance to watch it on the plane as we flew to Antigua. I enjoyed it but as in most cases, I think the book is far better so I'm glad I'd read that first.
When we visited Stratford-upon-Avon last November, we bought tickets for the Shakespeare attractions which were valid for a year so we made a return visit last weekend. We'd actually said that it would be nice to see the town in summer so that's what prompted us. This time we just went overnight. It gave us enough time to revisit Shakespeare's Birthplace as well as seeing Shakespeare's New Place, the site that was William Shakespeare's family home for nineteen years. We didn't visit this last time. The house where Shakespeare's family lived is no longer there as it was demolished in 1702 but there are now gardens, which are maintained by the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, for visitors to see. Unfortunately, the heatwave seems to have played havoc with the plants and we didn't get to see them at their best, but it was interesting to visit this site as the original house is mapped out on the ground and there is a lot of information and new things to learn.
We visited in November last year and it was rather cold so we didn't take a river cruise but we rectified that on this visit. It was lovely sailing past the Royal Shakespeare Theatre and Holy Trinity Church where Shakespeare's buried.
We made a return visit to Holy Trinity Church. On our last visit we missed seeing the saplings in the graveyard, two rowan trees which had been planted in 2022 in memory of Shakespeare's twin children, Hamnet and Judith. The grass, as in most places just now, is non existent, scorched away by the relentless heat and dry conditions.
We crossed the river by means of the chain ferry, a hand-cranked pedestrian ferry which crosses the River Avon near the Royal Shakespeare Theatre.
We were only there overnight. We stayed in the same hotel that we stayed in last time, it's very handy being centrally located. There was a lovely market which was in full swing when we arrived so we had a look around that. We had a meal out on the Sunday evening. We managed to fit such a lot into two days and thoroughly enjoyed our visit again.
If you haven't yet read Hamnet I can wholeheartedly recommend it, a wonderful read.
