Also next week, I’ll be giving the Fourth Denis Cosgrove Lecture in the GeoHumanities, at the British Academy, 23 May 2019, 6.15pm

The title of the talk is “Shakespearean Landscapes”, and while I will say something about the Shakespearean Territories book, I will be mainly discussing this related but distinct theme.

This lecture explores how Shakespeare’s plays evoke a sense of landscape. Shakespeare’s grasp of specific geographies could be shaky, but his plays are rich with a range of geographical themes, language and detail. Shakespeare lived and wrote at a time of colonial exploration and saw the development of many cartographic, navigational and land-measuring techniques. The lecture builds on the argument of my recent book, Shakespearean Territories, but explores a different yet related geographical theme – that of landscape. This is of course a theme which Denis Cosgrove examined so perceptively. The plays discussed will include some of Shakespeare’s most famous, such as Macbeth and King Lear, and lesser known ones including Timon of Athens.

The lecture is free to attend, but the organisers have asked that people do register beforehand. Full details here.