Posted on May 4, 2022 at 7:28 AM by Sadye Scott-Hainchek
William Shakespeare’s son, who died in childhood, has brought great fame to author Maggie O’Farrell.
Her speculative novel about the aftermath of the boy's death, called Hamnet (like the child), received the 2020 Women's Prize for Fiction, the 2020 National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction, the 2021 British Book Award for Fiction, and the 2020 Waterstones Book of the Year.
But, O’Farrell learned during her research for the book, the eleven-year-old's gravesite is unknown, and Stratford-upon-Avon bears no memorial for Hamnet or his twin sister, Judith, who outlived him by decades.
That will change this weekend, reports the Guardian, with a ceremony to be held in Stratford’s Holy Trinity Church's graveyard.
Two rowan trees will be planted, one for each Shakespeare twin, and O’Farrell will place a branch of rosemary cut from her own garden at the foot of each.
O’Farrell explains why she finds it so crucial to honor Shakespeare's twins to the Guardian.
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