“An actor who is playing Hamlet should, perhaps, not write about the play. He has formulated his own opinions in order to portray the character as best he feels able. This means that, for the moment, he is set in his ideas about a character on the analysis of which the finest brains of critics and actors have been bent for three hundred and fifty years: so it may seem presumptuous of him to drag the cloak of his opinion in so vast an arena.” So begins Richard Burton’s insightful introduction to this volume. His decision not to review the play accords with mine for rather different reasons, given that others more knowledgeable would have so much more to offer.
I took this book into hospital for me but got no further than the first couple of scenes before I ran out of impetus for reading anything at all – certainly not
I continued at home over the last few days.
Here is the now rather fragile book jacket, looking pretty good after 70 years, and also
the front board design that adorns every issue in this series.
These are the special illustrations by Roger Furse.
This evening Becky, Ian , Jackie, and I all dined on Mr Pink’s battered cod and chips and mushy peas