This book is my baby... the film feels more like a niece or nephew

Prize-winning novelist Maggie O'Farrell talks about the big-screen adaptation of her book Hamnet, and tells HANNAH STEPHENSON how she loved every minute of being co-screenwriter on the project

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THE world of movies is so far removed from her normal life as a novelist, but Maggie O'Farrell is clearly relishing the opportunity she had to bring her characters to the big screen as co-screenwriter for Oscar-tipped Hamnet.

It's a story of love, loss and grief, imagining the impact of the death of playwright William Shakespeare’s 11-year-old son on him and more specifically on his wife, Agnes, and how grief inspired the playwright’s timeless masterpiece, Hamlet. It stars Paul Mescal and Jessie Buckley as the grieving parents.

The Irish writer, 53, co-wrote the screenplay with the film's director, Chloé Zhao (who won an Oscar for Nomadland), watched in awe as the actors worked their magic on set and found that having a really close team helped the process hugely.

"The book feels like my baby and the film feels more like a niece or nephew for me. It’s very closely related but it's actually someone else’s responsibility in a way."

What does Maggie think is the secret of a good screen adaptation?

"That’s a hard question. But I would say, I think to preserve the themes and the concerns of the book is probably important, but not necessarily slavishly sticking to everything about the book, because you can't really.

"To make a book, which takes eight or nine hours to read, to bring it down to a screenplay, you have to lose a lot. You have to make sure that all those losses don’t feel jarring on the screenplay."

Over the years there have been both plenty of screen versions of terrific books and this year has no shortage of film adaptations with even greater expectations.