Contents (57)
- Prologue
- One
- Two
- Three
- Four
- Five
- Six
- Seven
- Eight
- Nine
- Ten
- Eleven
- Twelve
- Thirteen
- Fourteen
- Fifteen
- Sixteen
- Seventeen
- Eighteen
- Nineteen
- Twenty
- Twenty-One
- Twenty-Two
- Twenty-Three
- Twenty-Four
- Twenty-Five
- Twenty-Six
- Twenty-Seven
- Twenty-Eight
- Twenty-Nine
- Thirty
- Thirty-One
- Thirty-Two
- Thirty-Three
- Thirty-Four
- Thirty-Five
- Thirty-Six
- Thirty-Seven
- Thirty-Eight
- Thirty-Nine
- Forty
- Forty-One
- Forty-Two
- Forty-Three
- Forty-Four
- Forty-Five
- Forty-Six
- Forty-Seven
- Forty-Eight
- Forty-Nine
- Fifty
- Fifty-One
- Fifty-Two
- Fifty-Three
- Acknowledgements
- About the Author
- Also by Sharon Gosling
‘Can’t imagine why you like her,’ Gilly said.
‘Hmm,’ Edie said, handing back the book. ‘It’s not surprising you’re finding it a little dry, really. Shakespeare was written to be seen, not read. I suppose that reading the playscript instead of watching a production is a bit like reading a description of a painting instead of actually seeing the painting. You get the shape of it, but not the scope.’
‘Rachel says there’s a production in Edinburgh that we can go to see, but that’s months away,’ Gilly told her gloomily.
Edie went to an old wooden cupboard in the corner. Gilly had never opened it – there was a lot of the house she hadn’t seen, wary of seeming as if she were prying, or otherwise doing anything untoward in this place that was feeling more like home by the day but really wasn’t. Edie opened the door and Gilly craned her neck to see inside. She was rewarded by a view of stacks and stacks of DVDs.
‘Wow,’ Gilly said. ‘You could just get Netflix, you know.’
Edie sniffed, a shade of her customary disdain returning. ‘I’ve got a perfectly good DVD player and I’ll be damned if I’m throwing all of these out just so I have to download them all again.’
Gilly grinned. ‘Power to the old people.’
The artist made a soft harrumphing sound, and then rooted around in silence for a while, before making a triumphant noise and reaching up on tiptoe to pull out a single case. ‘There! I knew I still had it. I haven’t watched it for years.’ She turned and held up the DVD she held – a film version of Much Ado About Nothing. ‘It’s nearly thirty years old now, but it’s got a great cast. Kenneth Branagh directed it, too, as well as playing Benedick. Why don’t we watch it this evening? It’s a straight dramatization, not an adaptation, so it’ll be a great primer and it means you’ll go into your lessons at least knowing the story.’
Gilly sat up. ‘That would be great!’
Edie opened the DVD case. ‘There’s a bar of chocolate in the fridge. You go get that, and I’ll set up.’
Ten minutes later Gilly was munching on Galaxy and watching the film’s credits roll across the screen against a beautiful Tuscan backdrop. Twenty minutes later she thought she had a pretty good handle of what was going on. Half an hour later, a light came on in her mind, and it only grew brighter as she continued to watch Shakespeare’s tale of stubborn love and matchmaking friends unfold.
‘Good to see that grin on your face,’ Edie said at one point. ‘Shakespeare’s not so boring after all, eh?’
‘Oh, sure,’ Gilly said. ‘The scales hath fallen from mine eyes.’
The next morning, Gilly and Rachel sat down at the chess table for their Lit lesson. The bookshop was quiet, and one of them could get up to serve any customers that needed help. Gilly told Rachel about watching the film version of Much Ado About Nothing with Edie, and Rachel seemed surprised but pleased.