At 82 and with 90 fiction and non-fiction novels to her name, you might think author Goldie Alexander is ready to put her feet up.
But she has no appetite for that. In 2018, she produced three novels under the title of Shakespeare Now!
Having taught English to secondary students, she knows well the difficulty some have in understanding the Bard’s work.
“People might think it’s cheeky to attempt to rewrite the classics, but I wanted to show how timeless Shakespeare is by using,” she said.
“I’ve used major female protagonists and contemporary settings for readers who might have had difficulties with Shakespeare’s 17th-century colloquial dialogue, as beautiful as it is.”
Macbeth becomes Gap Year Nanny, set in present-day Melbourne. It follows the rise and fall of Stuart Macbeth in the corporate world from the perspective of Merri, the nanny, as she discovers there are ways other than murder to destroy rivals.
The Tempest is a science-fiction novel called The Trytth Chronicles. After Prospero destroys a small space ship owned by his brother Alonso, and Miranda and Ferdie fall in love, Ariel and the young couple are kidnapped by Caliban and flown to the dangerous planet of Trytth. The story continues on from the original play.
Romeo and Juliet is reincarnated as Changing History? – an account set in today’s Melbourne, and Berlin in 1928. When 18-year-old Taylor finds herself time-warped to Berlin, she befriends Juliet and Rom, who cannot marry due to different religions. Meanwhile, she tries to stop the onset of WWII.
Goldie’s passion for writing started very young. “When I was three, I learned to pick out words from newspapers,” she said. “I’ve always been a voracious reader. Books take me out of myself, particularly when the going gets rough.
“I’d always wanted to write but didn’t take it seriously as a profession until about 30 years ago.
“I mentor people in groups such as U3A, Probus and other community organisations who are interested in writing their life histories.
“Given we live in an age that has almost gone from horse and buggy to amazing technological revolutions, it would be dreadful if all those experiences were forgotten,” she said.
To buy single copies of the novels (RRP $16.95) or an anthology of all three (RRP $34.95), visit fivesenseseducation.com.au
