Tower and Town, September 2023 (view the full edition)Natasha Solomons - Fair RosalineShe never speaks in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet and is described only as Capulet's 'fair niece'. To create her eponymous heroine, Natasha Solomons had to ransack other Rosalines: As you Like It's strong-willed and quick-witted version and Love's Labours Lost's 'beauty dark'. But why the interest in this shadowy character? Why the need to rework the world's most famous love story as a subversive thriller? Solomons says she detects Shakespeare's unease about Romeo and Juliet's relationship and takes that as her cue to reset the story. "As a teenager, I believed it was the doomed love between Juliet and Romeo that made the story a tragedy," she says. "Rereading the play as an adult - alongside my sister who works in child protection - I understand it very differently. The real tragedy is that none of the adults protects the children." Solomons vividly conjures a Verona, by turns lyrical and rotten to the core, where first the 16-year-old Rosaline and then her even younger cousin, 13-year-old Juliet, fall prey to no hapless teenage romantic but a manipulative, violent and, essentially, older Romeo. There are twists galore as their story unfolds - will our heroines escape their familiar ends? No spoiler alert here other than to guarantee a gripping and immersive read. Hear about Fair Rosaline at the White Horse Bookshop at 5.30pm on Sunday 1 October.  Mary-Vere Parr |