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EXPLAINED: 4 | Vintage Vibes

Three debut novels compete among Women’s prize for fiction shortlist

First-time novelists are joined by two former winners on the diverse list, as the six ‘ambitious and hard-hitting’ contenders are revealed

The Guardian - UK

Hamnet review: ‘beautifully acted’ but doesn’t ‘pierce the heart’

The RSC has reopened its refurbished Swan Theatre with an eagerly anticipated adaptation of Maggie O’Farrell’s bestselling novel Hamnet, said Sam Marlowe in The Stage. As “snug and supple” a fit for the Stratford stage as one of the bespoke gloves made by William Shakespeare’s bullying father, it imagines the…

The Week

‘They are the crucial buyers’: theatres tap into the power of female readers

The Time Traveler’s Wife and Hamnet are among novels written, and largely read, by women coming to the British stage

The Guardian - UK

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Hamnet on stage: Maggie O’Farrell and Lolita Chakrabarti on adapting the hit novel for the RSC

O’Farrell’s novel about Shakespeare losing his young son to the plague struck a powerful chord in lockdown. She and Chakrabarti discuss class, place and loss in their theatre adaptation

The Guardian - UK

Maggie O’Farrell and NoViolet Bulawayo make Women’s prize for fiction longlist

Nine debut novels are among the 16 books up for the 2023 award, alongside novels by Natalie Haynes, Sophie Mackintosh and Barbara Kingsolver

The Guardian - UK

Holiday books: Fiction

“The Marriage Portrait,” by Maggie O’Farrell. (Knopf, $28.)

Tribune News Service

RSC to stage play about plague death of William Shakespeare’s son Hamnet

Adaptation of Maggie O’Farrell’s novel will premiere at Swan theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon in April

The Guardian - UK

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In The Marriage Portrait, Maggie O'Farrell distorts the historical record to suit modern sensibilities

In her latest novel, The Marriage Portrait, Maggie O'Farrell takes readers to Renaissance Italy. Lush metaphors and minute description of life in ducal palaces abound in her reimagining of the life of Lucrezia de’ Medici, daughter of the Grand Duke of Florence, Cosimo I de’ Medici, and his Spanish wife,…

The Conversation

5 new books to read this week

This week’s bookcase includes reviews of House Of Hunger by Alexis Henderson and The Romantic by William Boyd.

The Independent UK

The best new books released in September as selected by avid readers and critics

Our critics’ picks include a historical melodrama based on a real-life maybe murder, a romp through the illegal dance halls of 20s London and a gloriously biting satire set in Rwanda.

ABC News

Hilary Mantel remembered: ‘She was the queen of literature’

The beloved writer of the Wolf Hall trilogy and Beyond Black has died. Here, leading contemporaries pay tribute

The Guardian - UK

On my radar: Maggie O’Farrell’s cultural highlights

The novelist on a mesmerising mime show, the brilliance of Barbara Hepworth and the best falafel in Edinburgh

The Guardian - UK

Autumn reads — the best new books for 2022

Clear a physical space in your house and a mental space in your head for this season’s biggest-hitting new releases, says our resident expert bookworm Francesca Brown

Evening Standard

Review: 'The Marriage Portrait,' by Maggie O'Farrell

FICTION: A young duchess fears her husband plans to murder her in this gorgeous novel set during the Italian Renaissance.

Tribune News Service

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The Independent UK

5 new books to read this week

This week’s bookcase includes reviews of After The Lights Go Out by John Vercher and The Rising Tide by Ann Cleeves.

The Guardian - UK

The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O’Farrell review – the doomed duchess

The Hamnet author has found her sweet spot in stories of 16th-century women – but this promising narrative isn’t as gripping as it should be

The Guardian - UK

Seven big-hitter books for autumn 2022, from Maggie O’Farrell to Cormac McCarthy

It’s going to be a vintage autumn for fiction, with new novels from some of our finest writers. Here’s our essential guide

The Times of India

First memorial of Shakespeare’s twins Hamnet and Judith secured by author Maggie O’Farrell

Author Maggie O’Farrell won the Women's Prize for Fiction in 2020 for her novel 'Hamnet' which is inspired by the lesser-known story of Shakespeare’s son Hamnet, who died at a young age. Few people knew about Hamnet, who died aged 11 in 1596, and his twin sister, Judith, who died…

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The Guardian - UK

Elspeth Barker obituary

Journalist and author whose darkly funny 1991 novel O Caledonia has found its place as a Scottish classic

The Guardian - UK

Shakespeare’s tragic twins memorialised in the Bard’s resting place

Maggie O’Farrell will place rosemary at Stratford grave to honour the lost boy who inspired her novel Hamnet

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