Hamlet's setting

I've never read Hamlet -nor seen the movie. In fact, I don't think it's something I'll be reading in the near future (my apologies to Shakespeare readers).

The truth is I am more of a non-fiction guy. I've read only a few novels, for very practical reasons. For instance, I read Maria Chapdelaine (in French) a few weeks before I moved to Québec. I read a Serbian novel, by Milorad Pavic, because I have an academic interest in the Balkan war. (Pavic, who died last November, wrote in a Borgesian style).

I'd normally pick a history book over a fiction work. My brother, on the contrary, keeps an entire collection of Latin American literature and may have read some Shakespeare already.

Of the history books I've read I keep fresh memories of a few. A couple of Geoffrey Parker books deal with the reign of Philip II: the fate of his Armada, his administrative style (highly bureaucratic) and his endless campaigns in the Netherlands where a certain Duke of Alba was a key personage. Did you know that letters exchanged between the armies of Spain in the XVI century at times traveled so fast that they almost "flew"? (of course, other mail never reached destination or was late).

In the early to mid ninetees, two BBC correspondents wrote a highly detailed account of the Yugoslav war; later, David Rohde from The New York Times witnessed the tragic events of Srebrenica and published a book which, ten years later, is out of print.

So, why would I mention Hamlet, a book that I haven't read (nor have any intention to read, my excuses)?

The reason is I wanted to describe the town of Helsingor in Denmark, seat of the castle which reportedly inspired Shakespeare. That's going to require another post, for I have deviated a lot from the desired subject. The castle is imposing, certainly, and on the other side of the Strait one can see the coast of Sweden.