There was one confusing story about Shakespeare this week:
Jay Doubleyou: to be or not to be: shakespeare dies
And now there's another, captured by this cartoon from the Guardian:
Steve Bell on Boris Johnson’s Shakespeare book — cartoon | Opinion | The Guardian
['Squashing the sombrero' refers to the strategy back in March 2020:
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The book is due out on 31st March 2022, according to Amazon UK:
From the inimitable, mop-headed, "New York Times" bestselling British journalist and politician, a celebration of the best-known Brit of all time.
Four hundred years after his death, William Shakespeare is more popular than ever. With works translated into more than one hundred languages and studied by schoolchildren the world over, performed on every continent and adapted to every conceivable setting and interpretation, he remains an unparalleled global phenomenon. But why? What about Shakespeare has allowed him to stand the test of time?
With characteristic curiosity, verve, and wit, Boris Johnson sets out to determine whether the Bard is indeed all he s cracked up to be, and if so, why and how. He immerses us in the circumstances in which Shakespeare came of age the swagger and terror of the Elizabethan Renaissance, with its newfound craze for theater and its bold intellectual flowering, under the hovering threat of repression. He explores the endlessly intriguing themes of the plays, and how they speak to us across the centuries: the illicit sex and the power struggles; the fratricide and matricide; the confused identities and hormonal teenagers; the racism, jealousy, political corruption. He examines the psychology of Shakespeare s characters and his compelling, taboo-busting plots. He celebrates the playwright s appreciation for women and the roles he created for them, more fully realized than those Hollywood churns out (had women but been allowed to play them in his day). He brings into focus Shakespeare s shrewd eye for the bend of history, and the seismic shock of change. And above all, he revels in the language our language, which that master poet enriched with at least 2,500 new-coined words and a litheness that is an ongoing delight to us all.
In this joyful, fascinating book, Johnson reminds us why Shakespeare truly was a genius, a writer not just for his time, but for all time."
Alain Tolhurst
24 May
When news of its publication was first announced in July 2015 the world was promised “a celebration of the best-known Brit of all time”, but almost six years on there is no sign of Boris Johnson’s long-awaited book about William Shakespeare.
So what exactly has happened to The Riddle of Genius, and will the Prime Minister ever get to write about “the illicit sex and the power struggles; the fratricide and matricide” in the Bard’s work, as the promotional material suggested?
Discussion about the book, which also promised intriguingly to look at “the racism, jealousy and political corruption” in Shakespeare’s plays, has been renewed after allegations Johnson had attempted to get it finished at the start of last year.
The Sunday Times reported yesterday there are fears his former aide Dominic Cummings will use a select committee appearance on Wednesday to claim the PM raced to complete it when he was out of the public eye in February 2020, in order to earn money as he finalised his divorce from ex-wife Marina Wheeler.
Crucially during the same period he missed the first five emergency Cobra meetings to discuss the oncoming Covid-19 pandemic.
Four hundred years after his death, William Shakespeare is more popular than ever. With works translated into more than one hundred languages and studied by schoolchildren the world over, performed on every continent and adapted to every conceivable setting and interpretation, he remains an unparalleled global phenomenon. But why? What about Shakespeare has allowed him to stand the test of time?
With characteristic curiosity, verve, and wit, Boris Johnson sets out to determine whether the Bard is indeed all he s cracked up to be, and if so, why and how. He immerses us in the circumstances in which Shakespeare came of age the swagger and terror of the Elizabethan Renaissance, with its newfound craze for theater and its bold intellectual flowering, under the hovering threat of repression. He explores the endlessly intriguing themes of the plays, and how they speak to us across the centuries: the illicit sex and the power struggles; the fratricide and matricide; the confused identities and hormonal teenagers; the racism, jealousy, political corruption. He examines the psychology of Shakespeare s characters and his compelling, taboo-busting plots. He celebrates the playwright s appreciation for women and the roles he created for them, more fully realized than those Hollywood churns out (had women but been allowed to play them in his day). He brings into focus Shakespeare s shrewd eye for the bend of history, and the seismic shock of change. And above all, he revels in the language our language, which that master poet enriched with at least 2,500 new-coined words and a litheness that is an ongoing delight to us all.
In this joyful, fascinating book, Johnson reminds us why Shakespeare truly was a genius, a writer not just for his time, but for all time."
Shakespeare: The Riddle of Genius: Amazon.co.uk: Johnson, Boris: 9780399184543: Books
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The question, as the cartoon suggests, is whether time was spent writing rather than doing something else:
Questions for Boris Johnson over mystery of Shakespeare book and '£98k' advance - Mirror Online
Boris Johnson Skipped COVID-19 Meetings to Pen Shakespeare Book: Report
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As covered here by Politics Home:
The Ongoing Riddle Of Boris Johnson’s Book, "Shakespeare, The Riddle of Genius"Alain Tolhurst
24 May
When news of its publication was first announced in July 2015 the world was promised “a celebration of the best-known Brit of all time”, but almost six years on there is no sign of Boris Johnson’s long-awaited book about William Shakespeare.
So what exactly has happened to The Riddle of Genius, and will the Prime Minister ever get to write about “the illicit sex and the power struggles; the fratricide and matricide” in the Bard’s work, as the promotional material suggested?
Discussion about the book, which also promised intriguingly to look at “the racism, jealousy and political corruption” in Shakespeare’s plays, has been renewed after allegations Johnson had attempted to get it finished at the start of last year.
The Sunday Times reported yesterday there are fears his former aide Dominic Cummings will use a select committee appearance on Wednesday to claim the PM raced to complete it when he was out of the public eye in February 2020, in order to earn money as he finalised his divorce from ex-wife Marina Wheeler.
Crucially during the same period he missed the first five emergency Cobra meetings to discuss the oncoming Covid-19 pandemic.
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