Shakespeare

As we were in the area we went down to Stratford to see where Shakespeare was born.

Probably. They didn't mention the probably.

And they made a hell of a lot of tenuous assertions based on the very little amount of evidence they have about Shakespeare's life. Their first exhibit (introduced with spotlight, drumroll, ta daaaaa) was a ring inscribed with the initials WS that they found buried in a tree in the village somewhere. So in this village where a guy who probably wrote some plays probably lived, they found a ring with some initials on it that were probably the same as his. Hmm.

I'd have prefered it if they'd just said that this stuff was all their best guess and hell why not site a museum about him in Stratford and help us imagine what it might have been like to be Shakespeare.

It consequently all felt a bit misleading, and creepily reverential. To me that's a shame, because all the work a lot of people have done to find out the tiny amount of stuff we know about Shakespeare is so interesting and the mystery of it all is part of the fun.

Also given this is a place of great cultural importance and that a lot of hugely important people have been there over the last few hundred years (American presidents, etc) I honestly think they could have made a bit more effort with the exhibition and interpretation too. It wasn't all that inspiring. When I think about how good Anne Frank's house was, this wasn't great in comparison.

Hmph, I'm such a grump. I actually quite enjoyed the day, it was good to see it all and I'm glad we went.

This was a statue in the garden of Shakespeare's (knocked down and currently an archaeological dig site) mansion house. It represents one of his plays, but I don't remember which (oops).