In Memoriam: Professor Michael Hattaway

9th July 2021

The British Shakespeare Association is saddened by the passing of Professor Michael Hattaway, on Wednesday 7 July, after a courageous, nine-month struggle with cancer. The Shakespeare world has been enriched by his lively and accessible academic work, from the well-used Elizabethan Popular Theatre (1982), to his editing of valuable collections like The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare’s History Plays (2002) and the expanded two-volume New Companion to Renaissance Literature and Culture (2010). His passion for Shakespeare shone through his editions of As You Like It and Henry VI Parts I, II and III for the New Cambridge Shakespeare. Like the heroic Talbot, from Henry VI Part I, Mick’s legacy will continue to ‘amaze’ us all (4.4.84). We send our condolences to his wife Judi, son Ben and his wife Suzy, step-daughters Laura and Rebecca and her husband Scott, and Alex, Alice, Harry, Charlie, Elizabeth, and Laurence, who loved him as their grandfather.

The BSA has helped to fund the transport of Shakespearean drama books, bequeathed by the late Professor Michael Hattaway, to Dr Veronica Popescu and her English Department colleagues at the University of lasi, Romania, who are severely short of resources to teach Shakespeare.