14 June 2018
Yesterday, we enjoyed a visit from author and historian Chris Lloyd. Chris gives highly animated and interactive talks on a variety of topics using giant timelines to connect events happening at a particular date in history; we were treated to a session on the 38 plays of Shakespeare, covered in one hour!
Chris first explained how events at the time the plays were written often influenced their subject matter. For example, shortly after James I came to the throne in 1603 Shakespeare wrote Macbeth, as a nod to the King’s Scottish heritage.
Then, using his famous storytelling coat, with its numerous colour coded pockets and their intriguing contents, Chris showed us how Shakespeare’s plays can be grouped into those primarily based on timeless human emotions, such as jealousy, love and happiness and how they often incorporate several of these strands, moving quickly from one to another. For example, Much Ado about Nothing moves from Pink (Love), through Blue (Sadness) and eventually to Yellow (Happiness). The students displayed an impressive knowledge of Shakespeare and enthusiastically showed off their acting skills during the session. Congratulations to those who very ably played the parts of Hero, Claudio and Leonato!
Afterwards the girls were able to buy copies of the timelines and Chris’s books ‘What on Earth Happened’ and ‘A History of the World in 100 Species’.
Ms Amanda Owens, Library Manager