Luke and Lulach are separated by a dream and a thousand years. While Luke is having trouble with a scholarship exam and coming to terms with Macbeth, the play written by William Shakespeare, Lulach is coming to grips with life without his father, the Mormaer of Moray.

I’d heard Jackie French was good but I didn’t know she was this good. Anyone struggling with Macbeth should read this book, I don’t care what level you are studying at, this book helps make things real. It helps give the history behind the real Macbeth and not just the history the play gives us. It helps give us some of the context behind Shakespeare and why he changed the history to suit himself.

Macbeth the play is very challenging to study, you need to learn a lot of history, a lot of politics and then try to remember how different things were at the time of Shakespeare.

Luke struggles with the idea that the play is more important than the truth, that currying favour with a king in order to get a licence to perform is more important than the truth and he comes out with some form of understanding but decides it’s more important to tell the truth.

Lulach has his own struggles. His father is killed in battle, his mother marries again in order to provide a Mormaer for Moray. He has issues with this until he is taken to a battle which is won without bloodshed by his step-father. Lulach is then brought up as the tanist, the Mormaer’s heir. Some time later we discover Lulach’s step-father is Macbeth, the real Macbeth. Through Luke’s dreams of Lulach we discover the real story of Macbeth and how he really became King of Alba.

Along with this book you get a whiff of a history of both Lulach and Macbeth showing a small amount of French’s research, including where some information is rather sketchy. French also gives us some notes on the text explaining some of the words she uses.

Macbeth and Son is available from Booktopia.