We were recently extremely lucky to be visited by Dr Anjna Chouhan, editor of Shakespeare’s First Folio All The Plays – Children's Edition. She gave a fascinating talk to Year 11 about why she wanted to collate Shakespeare's plays and how she wanted to make Shakespeare more accessible to children; she also outlined her research processes. Our year 11 class were enthralled and asked her some brilliant questions.

Anjna also brought a very special item that will be on display in our Library until the end of February, Shakespeare’s First Folio Facsimile. The First Folio is the first published collection of Shakespeare's plays, produced seven years after his death, titled 'Mr. William Shakespeare's Comedies, Histories & Tragedies'.  This edition grouped the plays into those categories—comedies, histories, and tragedies—for the first time.

This first folio facsimile has visited 26 libraries across Warwickshire. Etone College is the only School that has the privilege of hosting this in our library.  The word ‘folio’ comes from the Latin word folium, which means leaf or sheet. Only 235 copies of the First Folio have been found around the world!  Etone pupils are invited to come along, have a look at the folio and annotate any section of the folio which has meaning for them e.g. maybe the first Shakespeare play they read.

Dr Chouhan commented, “Thank you for your kind hospitality today. I enjoyed meeting you and hearing all about the work you do with library lessons at Etone College. I had a wonderful morning, and the students were a thorough pleasure to speak with.”