Ham and pineapple or pepperoni?

At Stratford on Saturday I managed to fit in a matinee of The Taming of the Shrew at the Courtyard Theatre before my speech at the inaugural Literary Festival. The play first. The director, Conall Morrison, made the decision that this was not a story about a shrew woman being turned into an obediant wife, but about a suitor being such a male chauvinist pig that he demanded his wife just did everything he wanted. Fine so far, and an interesting idea. However, by the middle of the second act, I wanted to shout at the shrew, for god's sake tell him to get lost, he's a thoroughly unpleasant man! It's never been an easy play to perform, and any director has the right to seek a new translation, so although Mr Morrison succeeded in achieving his aim, the fun of the play was lost and didn't work for me.

I then went on to the Festival Marquee where I gave a short talk on my latest book, A Prisoner of Birth and the process of writing. The Q&A session that followed was fascinating, as the genuine literary audience were charming but very demanding with their questions. I spent a further hour signing books, and then left, pleased that I didn't get the question that had stumped one of the authors earlier in the week - what's your favourite pizza? Which reminds me to say that afterwards, I returned to The Dirty Duck for supper before spending the night at Ettington Park Hotel which remains one of my favourite hostelries.