Prompted by the opening of the Shakespeare North Playhouse in Prescot, we invited Coral Greenwood - former Head of Drama at Birkenhead High School - to give us a light-hearted talk on the life and works of William Shakespeare. Coral was awarded the MBE 'for services to education', and her presentation comes highly recommended. Here's how she describes it:

"Shakespeare is one of my passions, and my talk aims to cover the gamut of his genius from his plots to his incredible use of language. It shows the influence he had on the way we speak today, including many idioms that no-one would know came from Shakespeare.

"If you have ever refused to budge an inch or suffered from green-eyed jealousy, if you have played fast and loose, if you have been tongue-tied, a tower of strength, hoodwinked or in a pickle, if you have knitted your brows, made a virtue of necessity, insisted on fair play, slept not one wink, stood on ceremony, laughed yourself into stitches, had short shrift, cold comfort or too much of a good thing, if you have seen better days or lived in a fool's paradise - why, be that as it may, the more fool you, for it is a foregone conclusion that you are (as good luck would have it) quoting Shakespeare."

Coral's talk ends with a recitation of the prologue to Pyramus and Thisbe from A Midsummer Night's Dream - in costume!