Margaret Atwood is the author of more than forty books of fiction, poetry and critical essays including The Handmaid's Tale, the Booker-winning The Blind Assassin , the MaddAddam trilogy and her latest novel, The Heart Goes Last. Her work has received many awards around the world. She has also worked as a cartoonist, illustrator, librettist, playwright and puppeteer.
Her first encounters with Shakespeare took place in the 1950s at her Toronto high school, and she has consistently named him as one of the most important influences on her own work. ' The Tempest is, in some ways, an early multi-media musical. If Shakespeare were working today he'd be using every special effect technology now makes available. But The Tempest is especially intriguing because of the many questions it leaves unanswered. What a strenuous pleasure it has been to wrestle with it!'
