Indulge in the joy of Shakespeare, celebrate creativity, and revel in the power of words themselves with award-winning writer and translator Daniel Hahn.

Why might Hamlet be even longer in Italian?

How does the story of Romeo and Juliet begin … in Thai?

How do you build a joke in German, or recreate a rhyme in Japanese?

And why are Lady Macbeth’s pronouns such a problem?

Daniel Hahn, seasoned translator and Shakespeare enthusiast, will change the way you think about language itself. Ranging widely across Shakespeare’s works, and across the world’s languages, he explores why we choose the words we do and what effect they have.

When we change all the poetry, all the wordplay, all the syntax – all the words! – is it still Shakespeare? And is it still any good?

No knowledge of any particular language is required, though a bit of patience for the nerdiest of close reading is desirable.

Daniel Hahn OBE is an award-winning writer, editor and translator. With over 40 books to his name, his translations from Portuguese, Spanish and French include fiction from Europe, Africa and the Americas, and non-fiction by writers ranging from Portuguese Nobel laureate José Saramago to Brazilian footballer Pelé. He is a former chair of the Translators Association and the Society of Authors, and on the board of many organisations that work with literature and free speech. Books include the new Oxford Companion to Children’s Literature and the translation of José Eduardo Agualusa’s A General Theory of Oblivion, which was shortlisted for the Man Booker International Prize 2016. Born in London in 1973, Hahn was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2020 Birthday Honours for services to literature.