Shakespeare Calling: July 2020

Monday, July 6, 2020

‘Come, and take choice of all my library, And so beguile thy sorrow.’ Though Titus Andronicus is far from a comforting play, reading Shakespeare can help us get through this long-lasting sorrow of Corona. Stay distanced, friends, stay safe, stay well.

As always, I start with a promo for the book Shakespeare calling – the book. I do so hope you will help me. Thank you.

The book is available for those of you in Great Britain and parts of Europe on this site:

Or in Sweden

or Adlibris. Or contact the publisher info@vulkan.se

Shakespeare sightings:

In Diary of a Somebody by Brian Bilston, the narrator notes for ‘Monday April 23^rd It is Shakespeare’s birthday today, not that he’s in any condition to celebrate.’ Then he goes on for a couple of pages, considering in his humorous way the subject of Shakespeare.
In The Poison Garden by Alex Marwood it’s the villains in the end-of-the-world sect who read and admire Shakespeare.
In The Rain Before It Falls by Jonathan Coe Rosamond has quotations from Shakespeare on her bulletin board.
The daily newspaper Dagens Nyheter reported that Stadsteatern will be doing a digital Hamlet and it also had a photo of Michelle Pfeiffer from A Midsummer Night’s Dream on Midsummer Eve (Midsummer is a big holiday in Sweden).
In the novel The Ghost Factory by Jenny McCartney, which takes place in Belfast in the time of the Troubles, young Jacky tells us that, ‘My existence so far had been like some bloody Shakespearean play, littered with corpses.’ Later in the book, when his aunt mentions one of his young friends, he fears the lad will get involved with the violent Protestants and says, ‘What’s that shivery line from that old play? Something wicked this way comes.’
In Nell Freuenberger’s novel Lost and Wanted

the narrator astrophysicist Helen tells her friend Charlie that if she can read Shakespeare, she can read physics.
Charlie suffers from lupus and lists the drugs she’s taking: ‘I tried Lyrica, and now I’m on Cymbalta – the drugs all sound like women in Shakespeare.’
Charlie’s professor asks, ‘Why do we enjoy…Hamlet…? What do we get out of entering onto other people’s suffering in art, when we often avoid it in life?’

Films with a Shakespeare connection seen this month:

Midsommar: Shakespeare connections: Jack Reynor was in Macbeth.
Widows: Shakespeare connection: Elizabeth Debicki was in Macbeth.
Paul: Shakespeare connection: John Carrol Lynch was in A Thousand Acres, a spin-off on King Lear.
The Godfather: Shakespeare connection: Brando was brilliant was in Julius Caesar. Pacino was brilliant in Merchant of Venice and Looking for Richard.
Underworld: Shakespeare connection: Beckinsale was in Much Ado about Nothing.
The Godfather Part Two: Shakespeare connection: Pacino was brilliant in Merchant of Venice and Looking for Richard.
Underworld Evolution: Shakespeare connection: Beckinsale was in Much Ado about Nothing. Jacobi was in Hamlet, Henry V, Hamlet, Richard II. Mackintosh was in Twelfth Night.

Further since last time:

Started reading aloud to Hal: Macbeth by Jo Nesbo.
Stopped reading aloud to Hal: Macbeth by Jo Nesbo. No no no. I’m all for spinoffs of Shakespeare and some of this series have been brilliant but I just could not endure this book. Definitely DNF! Sorry.

Posted this month

Shakespeare Calling – the book is promoted by

Read more about my alter ego’s books, in one of which Shakespeare appears live and in person, on: