SHE SPEAKS! : WHAT SHAKESPEARES WOMEN MIGHT HAVE SAID PB – HARRIET WALTER

" It is STUNNING and I simply sat and read it right through, and shall start again at once. I had no idea that she is such a sensationally fine poet. Astonishing JOANNA LUMLEY Harriet Walter unpicks and re-centres the inner life and journey of these women as only one of our most talented and celebrated classical actors could. A must read! MAXINE PEAKE Bold and original . . . Anyone who cares about Shakespeare will want to own and share this book JAMES SHAPIRO, author of 1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare Dame Harriet Walter, renowned for her wonderful portrayals in Succession and Killing Eve among others, is one of Britain s most esteemed Shakespearean actors. Now, having played most of the Bard s female characters, audaciously she lets them speak their minds. With thirty new parts for Shakespeare s women, written in Shakespearean verse and prose, Harriet Walter goes between the lines of the plays to let us hear what she imagines – sometimes playfully and sometimes searchingly – these women were really thinking. Gertrude tells Hamlet the unvarnished truth; Lady MacBeth has her regrets; Kate, the Shrew, challenges us; Juliet s nurse challenges the nobility; Cleopatra s handmaiden reveals her mistress s secrets; Ariel is frightened of freedom; Ophelia surprises us; Olivia surprises herself; and the Witches have a good old rap. Harriet Walter herself says, I worship Shakespeare. His psychological insight is second to none but the mirror that he held up to nature reflected a predominantly male image of the world. I pondered the long shadow of his genius and tried to think of ways to let a little sunlight in on some of his women s stories. I like to think he wouldn t mind . An incisive, funny, mischievously subversive homage to Shakespeare s heroines, written by one of mine MEERA SYAL With characteristic wit, compassion and fierce intelligence, she gives tantalising voice to the Bard s female greats TAMSIN GREIG Effortlessly witty, cha