Get the latest entertainment news, reviews and star-studded interviews with our Independent Culture email Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter Hamnet author Maggie O’Farrell has spoken about her reasons for turning down an OBE. The author of several acclaimed bestsellers, including her 2017 memoir I Am, I Am, I Am: Seventeen Brushes with Death, has found herself in the spotlight more than ever after her 2020 novel, about the death of Shakespeare’s 11-year-old son, was adapted into an Oscar-nominated film starring Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal this year. In a new interview with The Irish Times, O’Farrell spoke about her Irish background and why of all the prizes she has received, she felt compelled to reject the OBE. O’Farrell, 54, was born in Ireland in 1972 and moved with her family aged two to Wales before settling in Scotland. She currently lives in Edinburgh. Speaking about her forthcoming novel Land, which is set in the west of Ireland in 1865, O’Farrell …