Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell: Signature Book Box

Every GiftSmith box is filled with your choice of gorgeous pre-loved book, a literary quote postcard (choose a design and add a handwritten gift message) and bookmark. It's then carefully packaged with beautiful dried wild flowers and dreamy scents.

Build your own unique and personal gift box by adding as many beautiful extra treats as you'd like! The perfect thoughtful gift, delivered straight to their door.

About the book:

A stunning new departure for Maggie O'Farrell's fiction, Hamnet is the heart-stopping story behind Shakespeare's most famous play.

On a summer's day in 1596, a young girl in Stratford-upon-Avon takes to her bed with a fever. Her twin brother, Hamnet, searches everywhere for help. Why is nobody at home?

Their mother, Agnes, is over a mile away, in the garden where she grows medicinal herbs. Their father is working in London. Neither parent knows that one of the children will not survive the week.

Hamnet is a novel inspired by the son of a famous playwright. It is a story of the bond between twins, and of a marriage pushed to the brink by grief. It is also the story of a kestrel and its mistress; a flea that boards a ship in Alexandria; and a glovemaker's son who flouts convention in pursuit of the woman he loves. Above all, it is a tender and unforgettable reimagining of a boy whose life has been all but forgotten, but whose name was given to one of the most celebrated plays ever written.

Our favourite quote:

'She, like all mothers, constantly casts out her thoughts, like fishing lines, towards her children, reminding herself of where they are, what they are doing, how they fare.'