Chloe Zhao’s adaptation of the Maggie O’Farrell novel Hamnet has had rave reviews, so I could not wait to see it. And it is a very beautiful film. The Forest of Arden shimmers and soughs, the unspoilt rural England in which Shakespeare grew up.
You probably know the story of O’Farrell’s fantasy. William Shakespeare and his wife, Anne Hathaway, had three children: Susanna, the eldest, and twins: Hamnet, a boy, and Judith, a girl, named after their godparents, Stratford-upon-Avon’s Mr and Mrs Bun the Bakers.
