The Microwave Shakespeare

"It was a week before my English GCSE exam and I’d barely made it past Act 1 of Romeo and Juliet; I found it so boring! Last minute, and probably not the wisest of decisions, I switched my play study to Macbeth. It seemed like a great idea for an hour before complete panic set in so I got your Macbeth book. The plot line was simplified in English I could actually understand, with the key quotes, essential to the play, highlighted in Italics, making it so easy to pick and analyse my quotes! After my exam I read some other books from The Microwave Shakespeare and realised that if I had started with them in the first place, I would’ve found Romeo and Juliet much more interesting and fun to read!"

Charlotte, aged 15

"This lively and accessible retelling of Macbeth is a brilliant introduction to the play for young people – including those who struggle with literacy (despite the relatively mature nature of the content, it's written for a reading age of 8-9 years). Staying impressively faithful to the original text, the narrative voice is fresh, modern and colloquial; yet still includes key quotations (highlighted in italics), as well as clear analysis of themes, character, and rhetorical devices. Most of all, though, this is a book that absolutely captures the excitement, intrigue and sheer visceral power of Shakespeare's tragedy as performed live on stage, which is an impressive feat by anyone's standards. Not only will it prepare teens for GCSE study... it will ensure they start out by realising that Macbeth is, above all, one hell of a story. Spread the word."

Teach Secondary Magazine