Happy Place Book Club Meets: Grief, women in history, and Elizabethan magic, with Maggie O’Farrell
Feb 5, 2026
Maggie O’Farrell, award-winning novelist of Hamnet, shares vivid research tales and her intuitive writing process. She discusses bringing Agnes to life on screen, hands-on Elizabethan experiments like flying kestrels and making herbal remedies, and why she left Shakespeare unnamed to humanise him. Short, lively conversations about women in history and the craft behind the story.
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Shakespeare Was A People's Playwright
- Maggie argues Shakespeare wrote for ordinary people, not just elites, and left school at 15.
- She says access to his plays should be broader to avoid seeing him as elitist.
Hands-On Elizabethan Research
- Maggie O'Farrell learned to fly a kestrel and baked Tudor bread during research to inhabit Elizabethan life.
- She also planted an Elizabethan herb garden and still makes elderberry syrup for colds.
Renaming Reveals A Forgotten Woman
- Maggie was motivated to reclaim Anne Hathaway's true identity as Agnes after reading her father's will.
- The name 'Agnes' became a pivotal gift that reshaped the novel's focus on her life.
