British Empire begins at home

Sir: It seems very odd of the Post Office to celebrate the Queen's Golden Wedding year with a set of stamps showing the six wives of Henry VIII.

A new life of Thomas Cranmer, one of the architects of the Church of England and creator of the Book of Common Prayer, is the surprise winner among this year's Whitbread literary awards, announced today.

Left out of the canon for years, Shakespeare's play is now generally acknowledged to have been co-written by Fletcher. Gregory Doran directs a rare revival for the RSC, with a cast headed by Paul Jesson, one of those actors who has never received his true due.

THEATRE

Henry VIII

Sir: Soccer is something I don't understand, but will it be worth protesting should there be any future printing of books by H G Wells, not to mention the staging of plays by Dylan Thomas, as it is alleged they too were horrid to their wives? Perhaps we should also stay away from any further productions of Shakespeare's Henry VIII.

t Gypsies used to be thought of as originating in Egypt, hence the name; but they are now believed to be of North-Indian origin, arriving in England at about the turn of the 16th century.

Serving wenches, Yeomen of the Guard and 17th-century grandes dames wander the royal apartments of Hampton Court with groups of captivated guests in tow. But this is no kitschy Historyland theme tour. The art of 'historical reinterpretation' is serious business. Photograph by Glynn Griffiths

If you can't make a success of marriage (even with the aid of our special report last week), then you'll be relieved to know that breaking up can be a 'growth opportunity' - at least, that's what the experts think. Angela Neustatter reports

Sexual, verbal and mental abuse, poisoning, beatings, jealousy and paranoia. It was no fun being Henry VIII's children. By Amanda Foreman; Children of England: The Heirs of King Henry VIII 1547-1558 by Alison Weir, Cape pounds 18.99

Who Wrote Shakespeare? by John Michell, Thames & Hudson pounds 16.95. The Man from Stratford left not a single manuscript, literary relic, or even a book in his will; his tomb effigy originally clutched a sack (the quill-pen was added during 18th-century renovations); his death, unlike those of Jonson, Spenser, Fletcher and Chapman, inspired no public lamentation or dedicatory verses. Afterwards, no one thought to interview his surviving relatives. Records left by his friends and collaborators are frustratingly opaque, but then we are dealing with the greatest riddlers, wits and punsters of the age, or of any age. Ben Jonson wrote a fulsome elegy for the First Folio, unhesitatingly attributing the plays to the Man from Stratford (here called Shakspere), but even this is full of ambiguities. "Thou Starre of poets", Jonson called him, but Poet + aster (Greek for star) = Poetaster. Other oddities outlined, if not resoved, in this hugely entertaining and non-committal survey include: the status of the "birthplace" (the Trust was once sued under the Trades Description Act); the Stratford cult ("a pious fraud"); the clues in the plays (was Shaggers a lawyer, a seaman or a soldier?); the other candiates - Oxford, Marlowe, Bacon, Queen Elizabeth I, ad infinitum; and whether the Droeshout portrait in the First Folio shows two left arms and a mask. So do the Stratfordians have a case to answer? Undoubtedly. There's something here to amuse, infuriate and perplex even the most devout Bardolater.

THE PRIVATE LIFE OF HENRY VIII 2.15pm C4

Andrew Lownie find fault with an espionage anthology; The Oxford Book of Spy Stories, edited by Michael Cox, OUP pounds 17.99