The Spectrum – the week in books | 6 July 2012

UP: SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE

Faber’s new Shakespeare’s Sonnets app is rated 12+ on account of its ‘Infrequent/Mild Sexual Content or Nudity’. After watching Andrew Motion’s  come-to-bed reading of Sonnet 142 we’re surprised it escaped an X-certificate. Who needs 50 Shades when you’ve got the third sexiest poet laureate (after Ben Jonson and Ted Hughes) wearing nothing but polka-dot pyjamas and braces? ‘Love is my sin’ indeed!
 
 
UP: 60s SUMMER READS

Now’s the time of year when literary pages replace serious stuff like reviews with drivel about what famous people are reading on their holidays. A depressing symptom of our celeb-obsessed age, it’s tempting to think, but a glance at an old newspaper reveals ‘twas ever thus. If you’ve often wondered what books Enoch Powell, John Braine and Lady Antonia Fraser packed in their suitcases in 1968, your prayers have been answered.
 
 
UP: POETIC JUSTICE

On hearing that defence attorney Frank Louderback was seeking time off a murder trial to take part in Key West’s annual Ernest Hemingway look-alike competition, a Florida judge was not impressed: ‘Perhaps a lawyer who evokes Hemingway can resist relaxing frolic in favor of solemn duty.