Comments on the Series

• "This is an exciting project, designed to make Shakespeare more accessible for a new generation of readers. It is greatly to be welcomed."
  -Prof. Susan Bassnett, University of Warwick, U.K.
  
  
• Walter Saunders is doing for Shakespeare what Neville Coghill did for Chaucer in making his work live for many people who would not otherwise have been able to appreciate it.
  -Lord Randolph Quirk, leading British linguist.
  
  
• "The modernised Macbeth enabled my students to achieve record results"
  - Carol Weale, Dane Court Grammar School, Broadstairs, Kent, U.K.
  
  
• "A lifeline to Shakespeare"
  - Tessa Edwards, Oakhill College, Knysna, South Africa.
  
  
• These sensitive, modernised and slightly abridged texts are valid and useful. They are not presented as substitutes for the originals but as a pleasurable pathway to them.
  -Prof. Colin Gardner, Head, Dept. English, University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg.
  
  
  
• "...brillig...vorpal...frabjous!" Walter Saunders has slain the Jabberwock of incomprehension that, for so many pupils, bars the way to Shakespeare's magical world.
  -Johnathan Paton, Senior Lecturer, Education Dept., University of the Witwatersrand.
  
  
  
• Many young people have been put off by the inherent difficulty of Shakespeare'e language. Walter Saunders seems to have overcome this problem. His modernisation of Macbeth is unobtrusive and does not divorce the reader from the genuine Shakespeare.
  -Hugh Houghton-Hawksley, ex-Superintendent, English, Cape Education Dept.
  
  
• For those Third World plebs like myself who groped and plodded through Shakespeare by candlelight and still remained mystified by the Bard's archaic language, this modernised series will come as a boon.
  -Joe Khumalo, PACE Magazine, Johannesburg.
  
  
  
• These versions of Shakespeare work on the stage and in the classroom. Not designed to replace the originals, they are rather interpretations of Shakespeare for the educational needs of our day and age.
  -Prof. Tony Voss, Head, Dept. English, Univ. of Natal, Durban.
  
  
  
• The modernised texts read easily and quickly, enabling students to get the essence of a play, which they do not do when struggling with Shakespearean English.
  -Daphne Hamilton, H.O.D. English, Thlabane Teachers Training College, Rustenburg, S.Africa.
  
  
  
• I have just finished using the modernised version of A Midsummer Night's Dream with an awkward class of 14-year-olds. It was truly magnificent and I was delighted with their positive response.
  -Michael Shaw, Lichfield, Staffordshire.
  
  
  
• Teaching Romeo and Juliet from the new modernised version was an ABSOLUTE pleasure. The class really enjoyed the play; they looked forward to Shakespeare, and didn't lean back in their seats groaning, "Ah, Miss, why Shakespeare?".
  -Wendy Botha, Eshowe High School, Kwa-Zulu.Natal.
  
  
  
• When I studied the original Macbeth in class for matric I found it boring, but when I read the modernised version I thoroughly enjoyed it and learnt far more about the play.
  -Katherine Rorich, Herschel School, Cape Town
  
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