posted on 04 May 2022

Hurly Burly: Macbeth Mayhem by Ross Montgomery

Ross Montgomery’s latest contribution to Barrington Stoke’s 'Shakespeare Shake-ups Series', Hurley Burley: Macbeth Mayhem, follows on the splendid high-jinx of Rock Bottom : A midsummer nightmare and Tripwrecked: Tempest terror that we’ve already reviewed on this site.

Head teacher, Mr Fortune is getting his school ready for the biggest evening of the year – Award Night. Pupil, Beth is very excited because she’s pretty sure that this will be the third time in a row that she has picked up the Best Behaviour prize. And, despite warnings from her friends that she’s over-obsessing, Beth will do anything to get her hands on this award.

As part of the entertainment for the evening Mr Fortune is rehearsing pupils who will be performing excerpts from Shakespeare’s Macbeth and Beth is on hand to help with whatever she can – just to boost her chances of being top of the best behaviour list. But, she discovers, there are challengers to her crown in Claire and Duncan who seem to be muscling in on her territory.

When Beth is given the chance to get an advanced look at the prize list for the evening, she discovers that she’s only in third place rather than top of the tree as she expected. Although she knows that she shouldn’t have looked at this list, now she knows the outcome, a terrible plan forms in her mind to put Claire and Duncan out of the running……

Cunningly enough, Ross Montgomery echoes the plot of Macbeth as Beth gets deeper and deeper into her fiendish plots – which makes this an ideal introduction for younger readers to the actual Shakespeare play. There are plenty of laughs and tons of slapstick moments to keep you turning the page and, of course, poor old Beth gets her comeuppance at the end – although there’s just a hint that this might not be the end of Beth’s newly found ambitions!

As in the previous books in this series, Mark Beech provides the splendid anarchic illustrations that help bring the story an additional element of mayhem.

Released this month, you can order this book from your local independent bookshop or if you struggle with that, you can order directly from the Barrington Stoke website.

 

Terry Potter

May 2022