Stratford-upon-Avon: Birthplace of William Shakespeare
Stratford-upon-Avon is where you’ll find the legacy of one of England’s greatest ever writers. The streets of this town are lined with historic houses, including his own, which you can visit. Or take in a play at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre.
Shakespeare was a wealthy property developer (with left-wing political views) who has no direct descendants, as all his closest relatives died, with no living children.
Despite stories of other people writing some of his plays, Shakespeare Birthplace Trust refutes this. Some believe that Edward de Vere (the Earl of Oxford) wrote them.
The Illustrated William Shakespeare offers 25 of his most beloved poems alongside stunning colour collage artwork, if you feel that you really should read Shakespeare, but want some easy bedtime reading!
Germaine Greer is not a fan of ‘exploitation of the Bard’, saying that millions of ‘pilgrims’ now spend £7 to struggle up the stairs of Anne Hathaway’s Cottage (not a cottage, and it never belonged to her). And visit to spend money at fast food chains and over-priced sandwich bars, something that William would likely be appalled at.
Like Bath, London and the Lake District, Stratford-upon-Avon is now suffering from so-called ‘over-tourism’. Where people often visit with mass tourist companies, buy over-priced tourist tat, take a few selfies and return home, contributing almost nothing to local heritage or economies.
The town is now so commercial, that apparently China is soon to build its own version (just like Las Vegas builds its own versions of worldwide towers and bridges).
People Need to Find Other Things to Worry About
It seems like political correctness has also gone a bit mad here. Following media criticism that to call Shakespeare ‘the greatest living writer’, is ‘white supremacy’, there are now seminars in London, to prove that Shakespeare was not racist?
In fact, as noted above, he was a very radical left-wing campaigner, and about as anti-racist as you could get, nobody needs seminars, they just need to read his life story and work. In 1833, black actor Ira Aldridge played Othello on the London stage, and since then it’s rare for a white actor to play him.
This mirrors some who criticised the author of the Paddington Bear books, because he came from ‘darkest Peru’. In fact, Michael Bond was inspired to write his tales of the polite kind bear, after his own family would shelter refugees in the war.
His notion for creating the books, was actually to foster compassion and acceptance for people from abroad. Paddington Bear was the original illegal immigrant! What would Nigel Farage say?
