Darling Buds star wins book award

A book penned by a TV actress turned author and scholar has won the first award handed out by an educational charity dedicated to the experience and international understanding of Shakespeare in performance.

Shakespearean Verse Speaking by Abigail Rokison, who acted alongside David Jason and Catherine Zeta-Jones in her role as Primrose Larkin in The Darling Buds of May, is the winner of the inaugural Shakespeare's Globe Book Award.

The award is granted to a first monograph published in the last two years which has made an important contribution to the understanding of Shakespeare, his theatre, or his contemporaries.

Shakespearean Verse Speaking combines scholarship and practical exploration from the rehearsal room to consider how editorial decisions influence theatrical delivery.

Abigail receives a £3,000 cash prize and will deliver public lectures about her work, supported by Globe actors, at three venues: Shakespeare's Globe, the 2012 Times Cheltenham Literature Festival and the Shakespeare Institute later in the year.

Director of Globe Education, Patrick Spottiswoode, said: "The Globe could not have been re-built without the painstaking research undertaken by Shakespeare scholars in the 1980s and 1990s.

"Since its opening in 1997, the Globe has become a place where leading international Shakespeare scholars have been able to share their scholarship with the general public. The Shakespeare's Globe Book Award seeks to recognise and promote new scholarship.

"At a time when research impact is being measured and debated, the award is a timely celebration of the work of a new generation of scholars, encouraging them to share their pure research with a wider public."

PA