Hillingdon Libraries continued to celebrate the 400th anniversary of William Shakespeare’s death with a talk from writer and critic Andrew Dickson. The talk proved to be a fascinating insight into the international legacy of the Shakespearean texts and how they have been adapted around the world.
Appearing in the charming settings of Eastcote House Gardens, Andrew Dickson took the audience on a tour around the globe from England to Japan, Germany to India and Poland to the United States. In India we discovered the first “talkie” Shakespeare as well as the way Bollywood introduced dance routines into Othello (Omkara, 2006) and changed the racial themes to reflect contemporary social issues. In the United States we discovered a library in the heart of Washington DC that possessed over 80 editions of Shakespeare’s first folio. Hollywood has also adapted Shakespeare, perhaps most surprisingly adapting The Tempest into the technicolor science fiction movie Forbidden Planet (1956), with the role of Ariel replaced by screen legend Robbie the Robot. Japanese cinema has been equally creative in its re-imaginings of Shakespeare’s plays, adding not just elaborate fight scenes into Hamlet but also shifting the perspective to Hamlet’s mother Gertrude. Surprisingly, not only were the works of Shakespeare rediscovered by German romantic thinkers but they also continued to be staged and filmed during the Nazi regime during the Second World War. Dickson explained that in many of the countries he visited Shakespeare had been assumed into the national culture.
Four hundred years after Shakespeare’s death, the talk reminded us that Shakespeare continues to be adapted and changed, to take on new life in new countries, languages and interpretations.
We wish Andrew Dickson all the best in his future globetrotting Shakespearean hunting adventures.
Andrew Dickson’s new book World’s Elsewhere: Journeys Around Shakespeare’s Globe can be found in the Hillingdon Libraries catalogue or in all good book stores.
By Mark Ulrich
To find out about future Hillingdon Library events please follow @Hill_libraries on twitter or visit http://www.hillingdon.gov.uk/libraryevents
skill, detail and ease that, throughout this book, I had to remind myself that it was a fiction novel. Sweet Caress follows Amory Clay, born in 1908 to a semi-successful writer Father and a slightly haughty and distant Mother, in Edwardian England. Amory’s fate and career is decided one sunny day when her uncle, Greville Reade-Hill, a renowned socialite photographer, gives her her first camera; an instant which takes her through the glamorous society of inter war London, the dark underbelly of Berlin strip clubs, American glamour and fashion in New York, life threatening danger documenting pro-fascist rallies, France in World War II and finally Vietnam in the 60’s.
From My Sister’s Lips is an autobiography by Naima B. Roberts who has written several children’s books including “The swirling hijab and Ramadhan Moon”. I read From My Sister’s Lips after I met the author while working as a Children’s Librarian in Brent and we had invited her to the library. The book is a compelling read and the author talks about her journey into Islam. In her book she clarifies common misconceptions about Islam and includes experiences from other women who talk about why they became Muslims. The book also provides a rare glimpse into the lives of a community of women, most of whom are converts to Islam. I enjoyed the book, because it shows, that women in Islam are like many other women, confident, educated and diverse individuals, who support their families and local communities to the best of their abilities.
This was one of the first fantasy adventures I embarked on, at the age of 10, and it is still one of the best. The three books, A Wizard of Earthsea, The Tombs of Atuan and The Farthest Shore, chronicle the life of young goat herder Sparrowhawk, who discovers he has magical abilities, is sent to a school for mages (I use the author’s word, to avoid any comparisons with Harry Potter), and sets out on an eventful path that leads to his becoming archmage of all Earthsea, and eventually to a confrontation with his own mortality. Earthsea itself is an archipelago comprising hundreds of islands, each named and mapped (any fantasy book worth its salt is nothing without a decent map). It is peopled by men, not elves, dwarves or orcs; and apart from the odd dragon, the forces Sparrowhawk has to face over the three books tend to mirror his own internal trials – take the nameless shadow he unleashes in the first book, or the faceless character from his past who leads him to the land of the dead in the last. For children’s books, these are intelligently written and have more to do with emotional and personal responsibility than pure sword and sorcery – but they also take the reader on a voyage round a world like no other. Le Guin has written further Earthsea stories, but these remain the original and best.
It’s many years since I read anything by Katherine Mansfield so essentially I came to her fresh. In a German Pension is a series of stories linked by some recurring characters at the pension, including the first-person narrator of some of them, based partly on the author. Mansfield spent time in such a pension before the First World War, sent there by her family after a series of romantic/sexual escapades. Some of the stories focus on romantic/marital relations, the females getting the worst of it. Others contrast the Germans’ fussiness, physical ailments and obsession with diet with the cooler, more cynical approach of the narrator. it is as if a modern woman had found herself in a Jane Austen novel. The best story, “The Child-Who-Was-Tired”, is both imaginative and shocking, but all are rewarding.
I am one of the biggest Hercule Poirot fans and read most of his adventures. Agatha Christie has a unique way to describe her settings and characters and I particularly enjoy reading the ‘Old English’ and well mannered language, without the need for swearwords and abstract phrases. Sophie Hannah has managed to adapt Agatha Christie’s style very well and Hercule Poirot was at his best. The story kept me engaged and I was unable to stop reading until I discovered the murderer and the many twists at the end, made it worthwhile staying up late for. The Monogram Murders shows Poirot as he is taking his customary Thursday night supper at Pleasant’s Coffee House. As he is busy positioning the cutlery, water glass and napkin on the table, a terrified young woman bursts into the restaurant. She tells Poirot that she knows that she is going to be murdered but begs him not to punish her killer, as this crime must never be solved. Of course, Poirot can not allow this to happen. The book has surprised me in many ways and I believe that Agatha Christie would have been proud of Sophie Hannah’s novel. I can’t wait for the next one to be written.
Written in the 17th Century when travel writing was at its height, this book played on several popular themes at the time. Slavery, travel, wealth and foreigners were looked at in a way that was very advanced for its time.
One of the books short-listed for the Hillingdon Book of the Year Award, it doesn’t matter how old you are, you will enjoy this book. I picked it up because I loved the title, and the cover design, noteworthy in itself. Designed by Martina Flor, the Berlin based designer specialises in type and lettering, and has been used by Laura Amy Schlitz for her covers before. A Drowned Maidens Hair is a melodrama, which is written as a sub-title on the cover. Maud Flynn is an orphan, she lives in Barbary Asylum, clever and impertinent, Maud is constantly on the wrong side of the Miss Kitteridge, the Asylum Superintendent.
