Shakespeare had a son. When he was 11 years old, he died. It's safe to say, that's all you know about him.

Now let a novelist get hold of his story. Suddenly, there's so much more.

From the Folger Shakespeare Library, this is Shakespeare Unlimited. I'm Michael Whitmore, the Folgers director.

Maggie O'Farrell writes beautiful lyrical novels.

Now there have been plenty of those written about Shakespeare, but with her

newest effort, Maggie has tried something different. She's written a Shakespeare novel that never

actually mentions the writer's name. That's because the center of attention is not the artist himself,

but his family back home in Stratford. Specifically, his son who died during the

plague outbreak in 1596 and the child's mother who tried frantically to save him. The novel is called

Hamnet, and at the time we're recording this, it's on the shortlist for the Women's Prize for Fiction.

That's the competition created after the 1991 Booker Prize shortlist had no novels by women on it.

Maggie O'Farrell joined us recently from her home in Edinburgh where she and her children are locked down during our own plague outbreak. There are spots in this interview where

the audio quality isn't everything we'd like it to be. We hope you'll understand under the

circumstances. We call this podcast, Oh, My Son, My Son. Maggie O'Farrell is interviewed by

Barbara Bogave. When did you first hear the story of Shakespeare's son, Hamnut?

Well, it was a very long time ago.

I was about 16, rising 17, and I was at school.

And I was lucky enough to have an absolutely brilliant English teacher.

And he mentioned in passing while we were studying the play

that Shakespeare had a son called Hemnett,

who died about four years or so before Shakespeare broke the play.

And even though, you know, I was a very long way off, obviously,

...