Book Club Meets: Grief, women in history, and Elizabethan magic, with Maggie O’Farrell
Happy Place
Fearne Cotton
4.7 • 15.6K Ratings
🗓️ 5 February 2026
⏱️ 30 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
You might have recently seen Hamnet at the cinema, but did you read the book along with the Happy Place Book Club in January?
In this chat, Fearne and author Maggie O’Farrell talk about how Jessie Buckley’s award-winning performance brought Agnes to life in the film, why it’s vital to remember women’s place in history, and why Maggie chose not to name Shakespeare in the book.
Maggie uses her intuition when she’s writing, and talks about why she doesn’t really plan what voice or tense to style she’s going to write in.
Plus, Maggie reveals some of the Elizabethan pursuits she took up during her research phase, including flying Kestrels and making herbal cold remedies... And Fearne reads out what she reckons is "the sexiest paragraph ever written"!
Thank you to Tinder Press for use of the Hamnet audiobook, narrated by Jessie Buckley.
If you liked this episode of Happy Place, you might also like:
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Anius will rarely, if ever, be touched. |
| 0:04.7 | She will grow up craving just that. |
| 0:07.8 | Welcome to the Happy Place Book Club with me, Fern Cotton. |
| 0:11.4 | On her shoulder, the brush of fingers on her arm. |
| 0:15.0 | Today, Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell. |
| 0:17.5 | Of kindness, of fellow feeling. |
| 0:22.5 | Her stepmother never comes near her. Her stepmother never comes near her. |
| 0:24.9 | Her siblings pour and clawed her, but that doesn't count. |
| 0:29.3 | She grows up fascinated by the hands of others, |
| 0:32.7 | drawn always to touch them, to feel them in hers. |
| 0:41.3 | That muscle between thumb and forefinger is to her, irresistible. It can be shut and opened like the beak of a bird and all the strength of the |
| 0:49.3 | grip can be found there, or the power of the grasp. A person's ability, their reach, their essence can be |
| 0:58.3 | gleaned. The film version of Maggi O'Farrell's outstanding novel Hamnut came out last month, |
| 1:08.6 | which is why I wanted to celebrate the original book too by picking it as our |
| 1:13.1 | January Happy Place Book Club read. I'm still desperate to see the film. I might try and go and see it |
| 1:19.4 | next week. I can't believe I haven't yet, but I bloody love the book. Hamlet the book was first |
| 1:24.8 | published in 2020 and breathes life into the story of William Shakespeare |
| 1:29.2 | and his wife Agnes when their 11-year-old son Hamnut dies. |
| 1:34.8 | You know why I love this book? Because I've always found Shakespeare quite intimidating, really. |
| 1:40.0 | Like, maybe it's not for me. But Maggie doesn't actually use Shakespeare's name in the book at all. |
| 1:45.5 | So he's just a man. He's a dad and a husband. |
| 1:48.9 | And it made me understand his whole world so much better. |
... |
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