Interviewee for Michael Wood's Shakespeare's Mother: The Secret Life of a Tudor Woman

Description

Michael Wood tells the extraordinary story of an ordinary woman in a time of revolution. Born during the reign of Henry VIII, Mary Arden is the daughter of a Warwickshire farmer, but she marries into a new life in the rising Tudor middle class in Stratford-upon-Avon. There she has eight children, three of whom die young. Her husband becomes mayor, but is bankrupted by his shady business dealings. Faced with financial ruin, religious persecution and power politics, the family is the glue that keeps them together until they are rescued by Mary's successful eldest son - William Shakespeare! Erin Sullivan gives an interview about infant mortality in Shakespeare's time and the emotional impact of such loss. This discussion is directly related to her own research on sadness and grief in early modern England. The programme has aired 8 times on BBC 4 as well as on the BBC iPlayer.