Anne Tyler: ‘Let’s face it, Shakespeare’s plots are terrible’

The Taming of the Shrew is an outlandish story. So I filled in a few details and toned down the exaggerations for Vinegar Girl, my novel for the Shakespeare Project

I’ve been reading about Russell T Davies’s new adaptation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, for which he was criticised because he dared to change Shakespeare. His seems a minor offence compared to what I’ve done in Vinegar Girl, my forthcoming adaptation of The Taming of the Shrew.

I wasn’t so sure about the Shakespeare Project at first. Face it, his plots are terrible. But then I thought, “Well, at least I wouldn’t have to come up with one of my own.” That’s always been hard for me. And here the Hogarth series was saying, “Just help yourself to a ready-made plot and run with it.” It was sort of like a gift.

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