Love, Loss and Shakespeare: An Evening with Sir Gregory Doran

After the death of his husband, Sir Antony Sher, Sir Gregory Doran stepped down from his role as Artistic Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company. In the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s First Folio, and inspired by the surprising history of the company’s own copy, he set out to see how many of these important volumes he could find. Sir Gregory’s book, Walking Shadow: Love, Loss and Shakespeare (Bloomsbury), relives the months leading up to Sher’s death, told via the two men's raw and loving diaries, and maps Doran’s quest to track down more than 200 First Folios worldwide – over 90 percent of all the surviving copies. The book is a poignant and panoramic story of love, loss and the ways in which Shakespeare can become a source of healing.

Sir Gregory Doran has been described as “one of the great Shakespearians of his generation” (The Sunday Times).

Greg’s book My Shakespeare: A Director’s Journey Through the First Folio was published in 2024 and his latest book Walking Shadow is published by Bloomsbury this April.

Dr Chris Laoutaris is a Shakespeare scholar, biographer and Associate Professor at The Shakespeare Institute (University of Birmingham).

He is the author of Shakespeare’s Book: The Intertwined Lives Behind the First Folio (William Collins) which tells the story of the creation of the 1623 First Folio, and which made several book of the year lists, including BBC History Magazine, BBC Radio 4 Front Row and Australian Book Review, and was a Financial Times Best Summer Book.

There will be an exhibition of Shakespeare-related documents from the Stationers' archives.

Tickets:

£35 In-person (lecture, wine, soft drinks & sandwiches)

Schedule:

6.15 pm Drinks reception

6.45 pm Talk starts, ending with Q&A

7.45 pm Refreshments and book signing

9.00 pm Evening ends

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Host or Publisher The Stationers' Company