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John Millen

No choice at all
 The English verbal phrase 'to have Hobson's choice' means  you don't have a choice about something even if it looks as if you have. 
 Are you going to leave the company and get another job? 
 I have Hobson's choice. The boss hates me, so I have to get out. I'll start looking next week. 
 Hobson's Choice is also the title of a popular comedy written in 1916 by an  English playwright called Harold Brighouse. Brighouse wrote several plays set in and around the British industrial city of Manchester at the turn of the 20th century.  
His plays were  about ordinary people that audiences recognised and understood. There are just three main characters in Hobson's Choice, and the humour in the play comes from their interaction. 
 Universal characters
 Although it was written almost 100  years ago, Hobson's Choice is still a favourite with professional, amateur and school theatre groups. The play has been filmed several times. It has been adapted into a Broadway musical called Walking Happy, and a dance version of the story by the Sadler's Wells Royal Ballet Company was staged in London in 1989. An American version of the play moved the action from Manchester to New Orleans. 
The play's story and characters are so strong that they can exist and thrive in different settings. Perhaps someone will write a version  of the play set in China. Meanwhile, the Hong Kong Arts Festival is featuring a dance version of the story by the Birmingham Royal Ballet at the Cultural Centre from Friday to Sunday.
 Welcome to Hobson's Boot Shop
The story takes place in the suburbs of Manchester in the 1880s. The rich citizens of the city all come to Henry Hobson's Boot Shop to buy their footwear because the quality is so good.  
Hobson is a wealthy widower with three unmarried daughters. They run the shop while he  gets drunk at the local pub. 
The top-quality goods sold at Hobson's are all made by timid craftsman Willie Mossop, who spends long days  in the cellar making boots and shoes for Hobson to sell at high prices. 
 A business idea in the shape of a man
 But Maggie, Hobson's eldest daughter, has business and personal plans for shy Willie. Maggie knows her father treats her as an unpaid  shopkeeper, and she intends to do something about it. 
She knows Willie is a brilliant craftsman who could make a lot of money if he had the confidence to leave Hobson's and set up his own business.   
What Willie needs is a strong woman. Maggie intends to marry him and set him up in business. What could possibly go wrong with her plan?
 All about Hobson's 
 Complete these sentences with a single word.
 1 Hobson's Choice is set in the ............ of Manchester.
 2 There are three main .............. in the play.
 3 The comedy in the play comes from the ................ between these three people.
 4 Hobson's footwear is made by a shy ............... called Willie Mossop.
 5 Maggie Hobson has ............ and personal plans for Willie.   
 6 The collective noun for boots and shoes is ................. 
Hobson's Choice is published by Heinemann (ISBN 978 043523280 / 04352328000)
Answers: 1. suburbs, 2. characters, 3. interaction, 4. craftsman, 5. business/professional, 6. footwear



Hobson's choice