Damian Lewis and Alan Hollinghurst read sonnets at Guildhall Library

Guildhall Library’s ‘Complete Reading of Shakespeare’s Sonnets’ starts at 10.00am with an introduction to the poems by Dr Roy Booth, Senior Lecturer in Renaissance Literature at Royal Holloway.

Lewis, who graduated from the City of London’s Guildhall School of Music & Drama in 1993, will read the first five sonnets at 10.45am to launch the free, ‘drop in’ event. Alan Hollinghurst will open the afternoon session at 1.30pm with sonnets 78 to 81.

Space will be limited at the venue and seats will be offered on a first come, first served basis.

Other volunteer readers and special guests will then take to the podium to read between one and five sonnets during the six-hour event.

They include:

Fiona Woolf, Lord Mayor of the City of London

Sir Roger Gifford, Lord Mayor of the City of London 2013 - 2014

Lucinda Hawksley, author and great-great-great granddaughter of Charles and Catherine Dickens

Lucy Inglis and Judith Flanders, historians

Cast members from Grassroots Shakespeare London’s Othello

City of London Guides

Keats House Poetry Ambassadors

Guildhall Library customers

City of London staff