Maggie O’Farrell on the tragedy of Hamnet

Hamnet fans can be transported into film based on best-selling novel for free

Hamnet, which is based on the heartbreaking novel by Maggie O'Farrell, is set to hit cinemas next year

Maggie O’Farrell on the tragedy of Hamnet

When novelist Maggie O’Farrell learned that Shakespeare had a son who died just a few years before he wrote “Hamlet” — and that history books barely mentioned it — she wanted to find out more. That led her to write the bestselling novel “Hamnet,” which has now been adapted into a new film starring Paul Mescal and Jessie Buckley. Maggie joins Tom Power to tell us how her Hamnet story came to be, what Shakespeare might have been trying to tell us …