Robert McCrum, the prolific writer, savvy editor (Faber and Faber, also The Observer), and an Emmy Award-winning documentarian (The Story of English: A Muse of Fire), chatted with me about his new book, Shakespearean: On Life and Language in Times of Disruption. In this interview, McCrum talks about Shakespeare - of course - but he also links the Bard to current events. Covid-19, the presidency of Donald Trump, and this acute twenty-first-century obsession with conspiracy theories do indeed mirror London’s past. Plagues riddled that Metropole from 1592 to 1603. William Shakespeare’s Caesar and Richard III, detailed a time when London was clouded by conspiracies, not just about the plague, but also about the Gun Powder plot against James I in 1605 (“Remember, remember the 5th of November”).

This delightful conversation can be found on the New Books Network and also Spotify. The interview took place in October of 2021.