Maggie O’Farrell’s Hamnet wins Golden Globe Award

Hamnet (2020) is a historical novel written by Murray Edwards Alumna, Maggie O’Farrell. It won the Women’s Prize for Fiction and was chosen as Waterstones’ Book of the Year, both in 2020. The novel explores the grief of William Shakespeare and his wife Anne (Agnes) Hathaway, after losing their son, Hamnet, at just 11 years old.

We are thrilled to share that Hamnet has been adapted for film by Maggie O’Farrell and director, Chloé Zhao. The film had already been nominated for 6 Golden Globe Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Screenplay and has now won the Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture Drama. Jessie Buckley also won the Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama - for her role as Agnes.

Maggie said of the nominations: "I’m over the moon to have been nominated, alongside Chloé, for this award. I wrote the novel because I wanted more people to know about the existence of the boy, Hamnet, and his connection to Shakespeare’s masterpiece, Hamlet. Turning the book into a film has meant another iteration of this story for the big screen and I couldn’t have asked for more talented and dedicated collaborators. Everybody involved in the film did an incredible job and it’s wonderful to see their talent reflected in these nominations."

As a college, we cannot overstate the impact that Maggie’s writing has had on our students. In an era where creative and literary jobs are under threat, Maggie’s work emphatically reminds us why these industries are so necessary. Her introspective and lyrical style of writing identifies and articulates emotional experiences that resonate widely but so often go unacknowledged. She has inspired a generation of new storytellers here at Murray Edwards, each of whom hopes to use their craft to help and heal others in the same way.

Hamnet is now showing at UK cinemas.