Darren Freebury-Jones @ Toppings

I have to be honest here. I've not even thought about Shakespeare in a long time. The last time I did have to think about him was in A-Level English when we studied his play 'Othello,' and even then, it was only because I was supposed to be churning out essay after essay about it. 

This is not to say I disliked Shakespeare. In fact it's quite the opposite. I loved Shakespeare! I was lucky enough to be in a class with only 2 other people, my closest friends, and we had a great time analysing the text both in and out of the classroom, proudly showing off our concrete evidence of Iago's homosexuality, and being the most crazy active students an English teacher could wish to have. I think I can be quoted as saying, 'Iago is so Girlboss, Gaslight, Gatekeep' to my teachers many a time. Back then I had a love of Shakespeare that transcended just the classroom.

As soon as I got to uni however, the Shakespeare stopped. No longer were we looking at the old texts of yesteryear, but now we were looking forward, to what we wanted to write and what kind of impact we wanted to make on the world. 

But that didn't stop those good old classics weighing heavy on my heart. 

About a month ago, I found out one of my co-workers is actually a descendent of Shakespeare, and suddenly all my passion flew out again. It was like the universe was calling me back to my old English classroom.  And then I saw a lasting on the Toppings website about a talk by Darren Freebury-Jones, and right next to his author pic, was the bard himself. I had no choice but to book a ticket that instant.

I'm always down for a Topping's author event, but I'd never been to one actually in the bookshop! 

Darren was an amazing host and, though I say it was an author talk, it was more like a conversation, going back and forth between Darren's excellent insight, audience anecdotes, and gripping readings. The hour flew by, and after a quick stop to get my book signed and say thank you to Darren for an amazing talk, I went home with my old college self still in my soul somewhere, smiling!

The highlight of the night has to be Darren's readings. I've always struggled to 'get' Shakespeare unless I see or hear it, and his reading of Sonnet 18 was stunning! I had studied Sonnet 116 as part of the poetry section of my A-Level syllabus, and had heard it read over and over again, but even then I had never heard a sonnet be delivered with such emotion and understanding as I did last night. It truly was amazing!

Darren is also a really lovely guy, his passion really shone through in his talk! 

His book, as well, is really intresting, looking at Shakespeare through the writers who influenced him! A really interesting take on the man who was the biggest influence on both the English language and modern theatre! As someone who had only ever known about Shakespeare through what my teachers had told me about him, this new perspective is really refreshing and shines a light on a part of literature I had thought long dead, but have now discovered is very much evergreen.