Author: samantha

First Visit To A Nail Bar

On By samanthaIn HEALTHLeave a comment

The last time I had a professional manicure was the day before my wedding, in 1994. It has just never been anything that I have made time for. I have never had nice nails and my hands always look awful, especially in the winter, red and swollen. I seem to do some sort of cleaning at home every day and also clean my parents’ house and, despite always wearing rubber gloves, my hands have started to look depressingly dreadful. No amount of Clarins or L’Occitane hand cream seems to make a difference. I recently bought some hand masks from Oliver Bonas and they have really helped so much, my hands look smoother and less irritated. My nails were however broken right down. I do take Oesteocare supplements every day and had hoped that these would help but no, my nails desperately needed some attention.

One reason that I never visit one of the dozen or so nail bars in my town is because the industry has such a reputation for people trafficking. I read many online reviews and booked into a salon manned by the two sisters who own it. They only accept cash which makes me think that they are not entirely honest with the Inland Revenue, this appeared to be the case with every local nail bar.

I arrived for my appointment and the technician was very friendly and went to great trouble to explain the options, pricing and the ongoing commitment for various treatments. I was hoping to leave the salon with a set of perfect almond shaped nails but the tech advised me to shun acrylics and go for something called BIAB. She explained that this a manicure that’s gentler than acrylic nails, but thicker and more protective than regular nail and gel polish. The idea is that the client’s natural nails grow under the protective barrier of the gel. The cost of this treatment at the salon I visited was £48 and this included a colour polish.

The technician applied a layer of gel to each nail and then the finger was placed under a lamp. She explained that some people found this a little painful. I found it excruciating and some of my nail beds were still tender the next day. Apparently this is due to “heat spikes” where the gel cures. I Googled and it did say that this is common when too thick a layer of gel is applied and I have to say that my finished effect is a little blobby. After the gel was dry I chose a lavender coloured polish to go on top. The whole procedure lasted for just over an hour. The sisters were super friendly, chatting about their children and holidays and I felt very at ease but I can’t say I am delighted with the result. I left a £10 tip, just over twenty percent, which took the bill to almost sixty pounds. I suppose the techs can’t work miracles but I feel a couple of coats of my Essie gel polish would have had pretty much the same result. I will go and have them “infilled” in three weeks time to see if I am happier with my nails after they have had a chance to grow a little. I am not really sure that I feel sufficiently enthusiastic to make this an ongoing appointment/expense.

I do have some Manicurist polishes, another Oliver Bonas purchase and I see that they sell their own gel lamp and a friend of mine, who has naturally lovely nails, gets her daughter to do hers at home using a kit by Mylee Neither of these options will provide the three week finish that a BIAB manicure offers but both would certainly be less expensive, the cost of buying the kit would be less than two visits to the salon. I may go down this route instead of spending what will amount to about nine hundred pounds a year on blobby nails. Perhaps this just wasn’t the right salon for my first visit.

Thank you for reading

Samantha

Cover photo by Photo by H&CO on Unsplash

Another Birthday Comes and Goes

On By samanthaIn FAMILY3 Comments

June is my birthday month , I am not a person who makes a big fuss about my birthday but I do like to have the day off work. Unfortunately, this year, my colleague was away on holiday (what a cheek) so I found myself working, from home as always. Fortunately it was quiet for once and I did pop out for lunch with my husband, we went to a pub called The Plough in a beautiful Kent village called Ivy Hatch. Eating out has become so expensive now, we both had a small glass of wine and a burger & chips and the bill was almost eighty pounds.

The Saturday before I had met a friend and we had afternoon tea at The Wolseley in Piccadilly. I hadn’t been to The Wolseley before and I probably wouldn’t go again simply because it was so packed and noisy I could hardly hear my friend. The tables are set very close together in order to fit in as many customers as possible I expect. Afternoon tea was about £50 and was pretty average but also half the price of many of the posh London hotels. I popped into Fortnum and Mason, which is just a few doors along, on my way home and was staggered at how much everything cost yet there were long queues of tourists at every till. It reminded me a little of the gift shops you have to walk through when exiting anything at Disney. I resisted the overpriced tea towels and mugs. I enjoyed people watching during my walk back to Charing Cross station in the afternoon sunshine and that was free.

I also went out for a pizza with another friend and have another pub lunch arranged for this week so perhaps I make more of a fuss about my birthday than I am keen to admit. I chose my own gifts from my family, all from John Lewis just because it is easier, some Clarins Serum, eyeshadow from Nars and earrings from a brand called Ottoman Hands in a gold hoop style set with a little green crystal. My daughter sent me a lovely personalised card from Moonpig decorated with photos of the two of us together over the years. A friend in Australia sent me some plum soap which smells delicious and some cute little flower earrings. All lovely gifts which I will use and appreciate.

On the evening of my birthday I visited my parents. My dad always chooses the prettiest birthday cards, I always keep cards from my parents and children. Mum, of course, had no idea that is was any sort of occasion and just told me to Bugger Off which is her unfortunate new catchphrase. Not everyone in their fifties, or at any age, has their parents still around so I try to look on the bright side.

So another year older, a few more wrinkles despite the various lotions and potions I apply twice a day. I am still resisting the Botox! All in all I am very lucky, not everyone is fortunate enough to reach their mid (not quite late – yet) fifties or to spend their birthday with friends and famiy.

Thank you for reading

Samantha

A Day Out in London – The Mall Galleries, Royal Society of Portrait Painters 2026 Exhibition

On By samanthaIn GOING OUT2 Comments

I have often walked past the Mall Galleries but never been inside so was delighted when a friend suggested we visit. Tickets to the Royal Society of Portrait Painters 2026 Exhibition were just seven pounds which was an absolute bargain. The galleries are a few minutes walk from Charing Cross. We were so fortunate that our arrival coincided exactly with the parade for the State Opening of Parliament. We had the best view from the front looking down the Mall towards Buckingham Palace, the rain was pouring and we were absolutely freezing but there was such a happy atmosphere with the band playing. It was a bit surreal to see a carriage go by with the royal mace sticking out of it like a delivery truck with an ironing board hanging out of the window.

Much of the work at the gallery is for sale, if I had a spare five thousand pounds I would have loved to have bought Tess is Reading (below)by David Orrin Smith or even commissioned him to paint a portrait of my own daughter. The  Royal Society of Portrait Painters does offer a commission service

There were portraits of so many different styles and mediums on display including many by Chinese artists from Shengxinyu Art, in fact these were some of my favourites. The pieces on display are selected by a jury of artists. Some have won the 2026 award Royal Society of Portrait Painters awards.

Below is a portrait of Professor Ranee Thakar by Alastair Adams. Initially I thought this was a photograph, the detail is incredible.

Below: Ladyswood by Richard Foster. How wonderful to have a family portrait like this. I am not sure who is the mother and who is the daughter though.

Below: Self-Portrait in Lockdown by Paul Newton, painted by the artist during the Covid epidemic he looks thoughtful and rather sad.

Below: The Distance – also known as Departure for Malta by Jing An Look at the ay the silver bangles are painted, it is incredibly detailed.

I took lots of photos as my dad is actually a very accomplished painter, of landscapes rather than portraits and I knew he’d be interested to see the different works.

If I am every in a position to invest in some art the Mall Galleries would be my first stop, you can view what they have for sale on their website. I have signed up to be notified of future exhibitions at the Mall Galleries and am already looking forward to my next visit.

Thank you for reading

Samantha

A Day Out in London – Titanique at The Criterion Theatre

On By samanthaIn GOING OUTLeave a comment

I had been searching for a show to go and see, I looked through the various “Things To Do In London” websites but wasn’t feeling very inspired and so many tickets are now over two hundred pounds. A friend said she had loved Titanique, showing at The Criterion Theatre in Piccadilly Circus. I booked tickets for myself and a friend costing about £110 each. Before heading over to the theatre we had dinner at our favourite Covent Garden restaurant Buns and Buns. It always feels lovely to be in this part of London on a warm evening.

Titanique is a musical spoof of James Cameron’s 1998 blockbuster Titanic based on the fated 1912 maiden voyage where approximately fifteen hundred poor souls lost their lives including my great great uncle, Alfred Maytum who was one of the butchers on board. I am always a bit unsure about the ethics of comedy based on tragedy but I supposed over one hundred years have passed and it was an accident rather that an act of war or something worse.

The gist of the show is that Celine Dion visits a Titanic exhibition and reveals that she was on board. This of course is impossible as she was born in 1968 as the other visitors point out. She insists she was a passenger on the vessel and witness to the romance between Jack and Rose. She then proceeds to enthusiastically sing her greatest hits. The whole premise is, quite frankly, delightfully bonkers. Celine is currently played by Astrid Harris. Harris is much more statuesque than Dion but, facially she looks uncannily similar and the wig designer got the hair spot-on. Harris has an amazing voice and something about the exaggerated, raunchy way she moves just made me laugh so much. My friend and I were probably the only straight people in the audience and the young man next to me was so friendly during the interval asking me what my favourite Celine Dion songs are, what other musicals I have seen etc. He recommended Hades Town. It was his and his boyfriend’s third time of seeing Titanique and they were laughing so much it was really quite infectious.

The iceberg is personified in the show by Ryan Carter. For some inexplicable reason The Iceberg is also Tina Turner with blue hair and Carter belts out “River Deep-Mountain High” in a glittery mini-dress. By this point I really was wondering if I had accidently ingested some psychedelic substance.

My friend didn’t enjoy the show so much describing it as a being pantomime-like and she isn’t really wrong. Rose’s mother was the dame played by Carl Mullaney. After a while it did all just start to feel a bit absurd. There are some genuinely hilarious moments, the mocking of Jack’s drawing skills, Rose’s mother being so broke that she had to shoot pigeons in Trafalgar Square to decorate her hat. The Heart of the Ocean necklace, famously featured in the film, is ridiculously huge in the show and Cal boasts that he bought it at Claire’s Accessories. I see that you can actually buy a copy of this necklace for seven pounds on Amazon!

I can see why Titanique has a cult following a little like The Rocky Horrow Show. I enjoyed it, laughed a lot but once was enough.

Thank you for reading

Samantha

A Day Out in London – The Banksy Limitless Exhibition

On By samanthaIn GOING OUTLeave a comment

I didn’t know a great deal about Banksy before visiting this Banksy Limitless exhibition so really was not sure what to expect. It is located near South Kensington tube station, and as luck would have it, a tube strike was announced for the day we had booked our tickets. Fortunately there were still some District line trains running and we managed to squeeze on and arrive on time. The outside of the building did not look very promising and I wondered if we had wasted our £26 ticket price- we hadn’t, the exhibition is amazing and so different to anything I have seen before.

What I did know is that Banksy is a street artist, his artwork tends to be subversive and that he is anonymous . Whenever a new painting of his appears on the side of a building it is reported in the press alongside speculation as to his identity. Apparently the most likely candidate is an artist from Bristol, Robin Gunningham. I had no idea that Banksy had produced such a large and varied volume of work or that he is a prominent social campaigner who actually puts his money where his mouth is (as my mum would say) all of his work is some sort of social commentary . Just this week a statue of a pompous looking man being blinded by a flag has appeared in Waterloo Place. Banksy has claimed responsibility and Westminster council seem thrilled.

Probably the most famous work of Bansky’s is the stencilled graffiti image There Is Always Hope, sometimes referred to as Girl With Balloon. It is worth visiting the exhibition just to find out what happened when this work was sold at Sothebys. There is a variation of this painting on display, a little girl holding a heart shaped buoyancy aid, for the people who drown making illegal crossings across the channel. Banksy has even bought a French lifeboat to help these people. There is a model of passengers sitting on a packed dinghy and a claim that distress calls relating to these crossings are deliberately ignored.

As well as being a talented artist Banksy is a master of puns. There is a huge painting on display of apes in the House of Commons called Devolved Parliament. A picture of Dorothy Gale from The Wizard of Oz is captioned “I don’t think we’re on canvas anymore…” His take on Disney land, a whole theme park installation is titled Dismaland. The cover photo shows a huge Little Mermaid display. Inside there is a killer whale with its trainer holding a hoop for it to dive through into a tiny blow-up paddling pool.

There is so much to see at this exhibition including details of his collaboration with Blur for their Think Tank album artwork . There is a whole mock up of a Tube station named Prakadilly Circus complete with advertisements. One features a photo of Mother Theresa with the caption “I learnt a valuable lesson from this woman, moisturise every day”. There is a piece of art titled Napalm showing the iconic 1972 image of nine year old Vietnamese girl Phan Thi Kim Phúc, terribly burned, running naked with her arms out at her side. In Banksy’s work she is flanked by Ronald McDonald and Mickey Mouse who both look horrifyingly cheerful.

This has been one of the most interesting and entertaining exhibitions I have visited. I don’t see how anyone can fail to enjoy it.

Thank you for reading

Samantha

The Dementia Diaries – Chapter Twenty – Can this Really Be My Mum?

On By samanthaIn THE DEMENTIA DIARIES2 Comments

It’s my day off and this afternoon I have been over to my parents house to do my usual, vacuuming, putting the laundry mountain away etc. When I arrived Dad was speaking with a young man from a company called Red Alert. The chap explained that the council had sent him as my mum has recently had two falls. Two weeks ago Mum’s legs failed her as she was getting out of bed and she collapsed. Dad could not get her up so, very sensibly, dialled 999. The paramedics got her back to bed. The following night the same thing happened but this time Mum fell across the bed. and Dad was able to manoeuvre her. He then had to deal with the fact that she had wet herself even though he was exhausted himself. Anyway Dad relayed all of this to one of their lovely carers who reported it to the council, I expect they have a duty of care to do so. Thank goodness for some help I thought. The young man was very professional and did not bat an eyelid when Mum kept interrupting every time he spoke. She continually told me to bugger off (her new catchphrase) and the poor chap could hardly get a word out. “Tell me what is going on” she kept shouting. Dad or I would explain but within a second she wanted to know all over again. I was embarrassed by the overpowering smell of urine and thought I had managed to open a window without Mum noticing but she barked at Dad to close it – which of course he did, he can’t seem to assert himself at all because he doesn’t want Mum to be upset. The man from Red Alert said that he could give Mum a pendant alarm or a watch alarm. my Dad has one of these by a company called Oysta and it is very effective. I pointed out that Mum lacks the cognitive skills required to use it. We agreed on a mat by the side of the bed which would alert my Dad when she got out of bed, assuming he has the accompanying gadget with him. Dad’s Oysta alarm alerts a call centre but the mat sensor only tells someone in the same house of any movement so it isn’t really a great deal of help in my opinion.

While the chap was talking to Dad upstairs I sat downstairs with Mum. She kept telling me to go away, she said she and Dad are none of my concern. Even though I logically know this isn’t really Mum speaking it can still feel very hurtful. I asked if she needed to go to the toilet but she said no. Half an hour later and I asked again and she said, “I do not need you to tell me to go to the toilet” She then hauled herself upstairs to investigate what was going on and wet herself in front of the man. She did not seem to be in the least bit embarrassed by this or to even realise that she had had an accident despite the fact that her clothes and slippers were soaking. I was annoyed to see, as usual, she was not using any of the incontinence products she has been supplied with. The incontinence service supply pads which I have stuck in all of Mum’s knickers so there is no reason for her not to be using them. Dad should really throw away her normal underwear now and buy incontinence pants but the will only insist Mum uses these at bedtime. This refusal to use appropriate products has been going on for five long years. He said, despite the Tena Lady pants, she still wakes up wet every single night.

The young man beat a hasty retreat, and who can blame him? Dad and I then spent forty five minutes trying to persuade Mum to change her sopping wet clothes and let us wash her. I began to feel more and more resentful as my day off slipped away from me. I feel guilty admitting that but here we are. Mum would not be washed in the bathroom so we had to do it in the bedroom, the fancy new alarm mat now being used like a bath mat. I could not wait to get out into the fesh air again. At least I can walk away unlike Dad who is dealing with this 24/7.

Thank you for reading

Samantha

Cover Photo by Pawel Czerwinski on Unsplash

A Day Out in London – The Gianni Versace Exhibition at the Arches, London Bridge

On By samanthaIn GOING OUTLeave a comment

The Gianni Versace Exhibition is showing at The London Arches until 1st March so you will need to be quick if you wish to see it. I highly recommend that you do. The Arches are about a two minute walk from the Tooley Street exit of London Bridge Station. Entry was £27.50. My only warning is that you will inevitably leave feeling dowdy. I remember that I was in Switzerland when new of Gianni Versace’s tragic murder broke in 1997, it is one of those events you don’t forget. The story was later made into a critically acclaimed drama, The Assassination of Gianni Versace. This exhibition is a retrospective of his 1980s and 90s collections.

What an absolutely spectacular exhibition this is, jam packed with stunningly beautiful pieces. There are over four hundred and fifty garments on display and visitors can get right up close to them, almost nothing is behind glass. This surprised me as the Medusa motif buttons used are so beautiful I wondered if they have a problem with people snipping them off as souvenirs. I had read that this happens in Chanel boutiques. As you walk in, the first display is a selection of men’s silk shirts, many featuring Versace’s iconic Greek Key design (see my cover photo). There is an information card for every garment, accessory and object. At this stage in the exhibition Elton John’s voice is played through the speaker as he tells about his friendship and working relationship with Versace. Next there is a black mesh dress, a little leather bandeau dress and some stunningly jewelled slingback heels. One of my favourite garments was a leather jacket with a jewelled cross on the back.

There are rooms with red carpet and maybe twenty mannequins all wearing bedazzled creations, it is almost as if you need sunglasses. A velvet gold and black brocade suit which is absolutely timeless, gowns galore, swimming costumes with silk robes. In one room you can see the Princess Diana display with slightly more demure jackets and skirts and a crocodile handbag. Of course Diana had the perfect figure for the evening dresses she is pictured wearing . “Don’t Let The Sun Go Down on Me” is playing, sung by Elton John and George Michael and the outfits they are wearing at the concert are on display.

One display does look a little like a 1960s East End wholesalers window with bell bottom trousers paired with floral silk tops.

Of course it was Versace’s safety pin dress that catapulted Elizabeth Hurley’s career into the stratosphere. The dress itself isn’t featured but there are is a short film of her wearing it arriving at the Four Weddings and a Funeral premier with Hugh Grant and some other photos are on display of her looking amazing wearing various Versace creations. I seem to remember her upstaging one poor bride by turning up at a wedding in a Versace gown, slit to the hip, leopard print knickers on full display.

Back in the 1990s I subscribed to Vogue and of course the cover always featured a supermodel, Helena, Christy, Naomi, Linda or Cindy. Who needs surnames? Nowadays very few of us buy physical magazines and actresses and influencers seem to have taken the place of the model. I had forgotten just how other-worldly beautiful these women were, and most of them still are. Helena Christensen features in the film playing at then end of the exhibition, all dark lips and black corsetry. Stephanie Seymour with bouncy hair and huge earrings. Naomi Campbell strutting like Queen of the world, Kate Moss looking impossibly young and grinning from ear to ear.

There are a few nods to Versace’s other endeavours, his line of furniture, perfume and home accessories (there is a black lacquer side table oddly placed by itself next to a display of dresses) a but this retrospective is really all about the fashion. I had in the past thought his style rather gaudy but, close up, everything was just beautiful and it made me long to be young, beautiful and rich because surely that’s who these creations are meant for.

Thank you for reading

Samantha

A Day Out in London – The David Hockney Exhibition at Annely Juda Fine Art

On By samanthaIn GOING OUTLeave a comment

I am writing this on the 31st of January but, honestly, it feels more like the 60th of the month. I haven’t had the best start to 2026 with a health scare, which I suspect was brought on my my HRT . I have made the decision to go cold turkey and stop taking it. Anyway, I went for a scan and all seems to be well so that is a weight off my mind.

I visited the David Hockney Exhibition at Annely Juda Fine Art which is showing until the end of February. The gallery is located near Hanover Square. I took the Tube to Bond Street and then it’s just under a ten minute walk. The gallery is inside a handsome Georgian townhouse. Admission is free. Upstairs there is the “Moon Room” which shows fifteen paintings composed on an iPad. Each painting depicts a countryside scene illuminated by moonlight, there is a particularly gorgeous painting featuring a Christmas tree festooned with brightly coloured bulbs. They ae stunningly beautiful and luminous and were created in Hockney’s studio in Normandy, France. The walls of the gallery are painted in a deep midnight blue which perfectly sets off the artwork.

The paintings in the exhibition are absolutely brand new, the eighty eight year old artist is still producing amazing art although some of the brush work looks a little shaky. Downstairs in the gallery there are hugely colourful room scenes featuring mixed media where the perspective is intentionally “off”. The subject matter, chairs and flowers are of course completely conventional but nothing else about these works is. There are a series of portraits including a self portrait of Hockney in a wheelchair.

After the gallery my friend and I had lunch in the nearby John Lewis which was pretty awful. We then looked in a couple of shops in Oxford Street. I went into Stradivarius where I unnecessarily added to my stripy shirt collection. In this store there are a couple of security guards but I could find no actual shop assistants. The checkouts are self serve and you even have to remove your own security tags. Those jobs, traditionally filled by young people are all being done by technology. Who is going to employ humans who require paid holiday, national insurance contributions and pensions when machines can do the job? As the parent of young adults, it is very worrying.

The weather in London was abysmal, raining and freezing cold but it was a nice to have a change of scenery and to see my friend. When I got home I saw that my snowdrops had made an appearance, they never fail to remind me that winter is almost behind us for another year

Thank you for reading

Samantha

Time Flies at Supersonic Speed

On By samanthaIn FAMILYLeave a comment

Can I sail through the changin’ ocean tides?
Can I handle the seasons of my life?
Well, I’ve been ‘fraid of changin’
‘Cause I’ve built my life around you
But time makes you bolder
Even children get older
And I’m gettin’ older, too “Landslide”, Fleetwood Mac

I had a very strange experience yesterday. I was at a routine hospital appointment, waiting in a corridor to be called in. I suddenly remembered sitting the the exact same spot, outside the same room with my daughter when she was about seven years old. She will be twenty two tomorrow. I was overcome with the feeling that, if I turned my head, I would see my little seven year old daughter, wearing her stripy school pinafore, floppy hat and navy blue leather T Bar shoes sitting there next to me. I could feel her there, swinging her little legs, so palpably. I felt almost overcome by sadness at how quickly the years have passed.

In June 2025 I had three children living at home. My daughter was on work placement for her degree, my oldest son was preparing to move into a house with his partner and my youngest hadn’t yet gone off to university. Now they are all living away from home and my husband and I are rattling around in our house. Seeing my youngest go off to catch the train back to his university town after Christmas was hard, he has a whole other life that I know almost nothing about now. He is quite guarded about what he shares, everything is “chill” and fine apparently, I hope so.

I went to a drinks party at London Bridge on Saturday and, on the train back, there was a family of four sitting next to us. I could only see the husband and two grown up children as the mother was in my blind spot. All I could see of her were her badly scuffed boots, frayed trousers and shabby handbag which was odd because the rest of her family were dressed head to toe in expensive clothes. When we reached our destination the family stood up to get off as well and I saw the woman’s face and immediately realised that I knew her, she and I even had coffee at each other’s houses when my youngest son and her daughter were tiny and attending the same play group. I wondered if she spent all her time looking after the rest of her family and had failed to notice that she could do with a bit of TLC herself. I nearly said hello but then the penny dropped that it had been seventeen years since we had last spoken. We did that polite thing of pretending not to recognise each other. She was probably thinking that I haven’t worn too well myself! How could almost two decades pass so quickly?

I am feeling a little melancholy after Christmas. I think I probably also have a touch of Empty Nest Syndrome. It is my day off and I visited my parents who now need my help far more than my children. There is a solitary snow boot in the corner of their bedroom, it is covered in a thick blanket of dust. It’s been there for years. Today I decided I was going to insist it is finally thrown away. Dad stopped me saying Mum, who is totally housebound, might decided to go for a walk in the snow. In one boot? My highly intelligent Dad seems to have convinced himself that Mum is going to miraculously recover from her Alzheimer’s disease if he looks after her well enough. I did manage to throw away a dozen cans of air freshener though so my visit wasn’t a complete decluttering failure.

I have a letter from my grandmother in which she says time passes so quickly. It has been in my jewellery box for forty years and I have never been able to bring myself to re-read it. Now I know exactly what she meant. It seems as if in the blink of an eye a year has passed. As I drove home from the hospital a beautiful song called “Landslide” by Fleetwood Mac came on the radio, it summed up my mood perfectly.

Thank you for reading

Samantha

Cover photo – A timepiece from the V & A Cartier exhibition

Film Review – Hamnet

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I haven’t read Maggie O’Farrell’s 2020 novel upon which this film is based neither have I seen the West End production so I actually had very little idea what this film was about. The film has received excellent reviews and just last night Hamnet won Golden Globes for Best Motion Picture, Drama and Jessie Buckley won for Best Actress for her role as Agnes.

Is a film about Shakespeare going to appeal to audiences in 2026? The answer seems to be a resounding yes. Instead of focusing on the Bard’s work the book/film focusses on his family life, particularly his feisty free-spirited wife Agnes and his little boy, Hamnet. At the beginning of the film there is a note to say that in the 16th century the names Hamlet and Hamnet were interchangeable. Hamnet is one of a set of fraternal twins, Judith his twin sister is a fragile child who almost died at birth. They have an older sister, Susanna. Agnes, like her mother before her, has the reputation of being something of a witch and she has some precognitive ability. Agnes has a vision of there being two children at her deathbed and convinces herself that Judith will die before she does. There is a strong supernatural current running throughout the story.

Agnes and Shakespeare meet when he is engaged as a Latin tutor for her brothers, a role he has been obliged to take on to pay off his violent father’s debts. He sees Agnes, resplendent in her red dress with a hawk on her arm and makes a pass at her not realising that she is the daughter of his employer. He woos her with the tale of lovers Orpheus and Eurydyce and she appears to have a vision of his future . The director Chloe Zhao makes great use of the lush forest location and it is here that Agnes belongs while Shakespeare feels constrained and wishes to go to London and pursue his dream of becoming a playwright. The separation is problematic and it soon becomes clear that Agnes has no intention of ever living in the city.

Jessie Buckley is really the star of Hamnet with her powerhouse performance. She plays Agnes with a fierce strength at the heart of which is a fear of losing one of her children. Paul Mescal is a wonderful Shakespeare who deeply loves his family. Chloe Zhao really gets to the crux of what makes each character tick and I especially liked Emily Watsons performance as Shakespeare’s mother, Mary. I am not going to give anything away about the plot other than to say that Hamnet is devastatingly sad film. Mary tells us how she has lost three children, one aged seven and two as babies. In a time when infant mortality was so high, women, especially, learned to live with the burden of grief.

I don’t like it when I feel that books or films are trying to manipulate me into feeling something and unfortunately I did feel this about Hamnet. I think a little more subtlety would have worked, we didn’t need to be hit over the head with the character’s emotions, the subject matter was sad enough. I almost felt that I had failed the assignment by not crying by the end.

My favourite scene was set in the Globe Theatre. Like the scenes set in the streets of Stratford you really feel that you have been transported back in time. You would require a heart of stone not to be moved when Agnes first sees the play that her husband has written about the darkest time in their lives. A time when he was absent from the family because of his work commitments. I did enjoy Hamnet, it is a visually beautiful film told through a mix of fact and imagination.

.Thank you for reading,

Samantha

Cover Photo by Myke Simon on Unsplash