Hamnet author Maggie O’Farrell has spoken about her reasons for turning down an OBE.
The author of several acclaimed bestsellers, including her 2017 memoir I Am, I Am, I Am: Seventeen Brushes with Death, has found herself in the spotlight more than ever after her 2020 novel, about the death of Shakespeare’s 11-year-old son, was adapted into an Oscar-nominated film starring Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal this year.