Mercure Shakespeare Hotel - Stratford Festival of Literature

Here’s six signatures of Shakespeare, the only specimens of his handwriting we have. The interpretation of the lettering is by Charles Hamilton, In Search of Shakespeare Harcourt Brace, 1985. (a) From 1612 deposition: Will ia m Shack per (b) 1612 Blackfriars deed:William Shakspe ar (c) 1612 Blackfriars mortgage: Wm Shakspea (d) His 1615 will, page 1: William Shackspere (e) Will, page 2: Willm. Shakspere (f) Will, page 3: By me William Shakspeare [often questioned as by a different hand] The foregoing signatures have been altered by time and very frequent careless handling with greasy fingers. The following five signatures were engraved in 1809 by ... Read Full Story

"National Rail Enquiries, how can I NOT help you at all?" I should explain. On Saturday night, a friend and co-worker of The Darling G, currently over from the US, stayed with us overnight. On Sunday morning, we were to drop our colonial cousin at Oxford railway station, whereby she would be using the rail network to travel to Stratford-Upon-Avon. We were warned on the Saturday that the connection at Banbury would be very tight (about 5 minutes), and that we could phone National Rail Enquiries on the Sunday morning to confirm from which platform at Banbury the Stratford train would depart. As Aleksandr ... Read Full Story

Edward Moon 9 Chapel Street Stratford-Upon-Avon CV37 6EP Date of Last Visit : Saturday, May 2nd, 2009 The Victims : Gerry, Ben The Damage : £20ish each? The Background : We've planned a little field trip. We've never been to Stratford-upon-Avon, so we take the train in and check out Shakespeare's birthplace and the Nash house and then we start to construct our own little pub crawl of Straford-upon-Avon. But first, some lunch. We really don't know where we're going, but we've got a Let's Go or a Lonely Planet or something and I've got Google Maps--I'm becoming increasingly reliant on the "Search Nearby" ... Read Full Story

Holy Trinity's own theatre company, Trinity Players, is putting on a new adaptation (at Holy Trinity Church) of Anthony Throllope's 1857 novel, Barchester Towers . There will be three performances: one on Thursday 26th February at 7.30pm; and two on Saturday February 28th at 3pm and 7.30pm. There's an absolute stellar cast headed by Tim Raistrick as Obadiah Slope (see photo), Pete and Val Cubitt as Ethelbert and Charlotte Stanhope, Sarah Cushing as Eleanor Bold, Tony and Glenda Boyd-Williams as Bishop and Mrs Proudie, Geoffrey Lees as Septimus Harding, Orion Johnson as Madeline Stanhope, and a superb Miss Thorne played by Dorothy Raistrick; plus ... Read Full Story

The Stratford-upon-Avon Music Festival is one of this country's longest established and most popular events on the music calender, which this year included, as part of a superb mix, the remarkable Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain and the world renowned pianist John Lill. And today, Sunday 19th October, the festival ends with the Warwickshire Symphony Orchestra, Instant Sunshine, and, at the White Swan Hotel, a tribute to the late and great tenor saxophonist and jazz club owner Ronnie Scott. Now Ronnie Scott was a wonderfully inventive musician who played with the best. I remember seeing him with the Woody Herman Orchestra back in the ... Read Full Story