Competition | 30 May 2009

In Competition No. 2597 you were invited to submit a report written by a social worker on a character from Shakespeare.

Congratulations all round: you were on top form. All the biggies — Hamlet, Lear, the Macbeths, Richard III — were subjected to the beady if sometimes myopic eye of social services. There were some sparkling examples of death by jargon, among which Adrian Fry stood out.

Admirable though a determination to see the good in people is, the blind optimism in some of your reports had a chilling topical resonance. Michael Brereton’s case worker responsible for Hamlet, who has been called in following the Prince’s murder of Polonius, writes, following his client’s return from England, ‘I can confidently say there is no likelihood of further such incident.’

Most popular

Gavin Mortimer

When will Britain wake up to the Islamist threat?

Special mentions to Keith Norman, Barry Baldwin, Caro McShane and Mike Morrison.