i went to see one small step last night at the burton taylor rooms at the oxford playhouse with my kids. i saw it last year and it's still hilarious and ingenious and unexpectedy moving. it's two guys in a lumber room dramatising the history of the space race using lampshades and cardboard tubes and tins of spam. it's billed as kids' theatre but i think the adults in the audience enjoyed it even more than the kids. not least because its an inspired demonstration of what theatre does best - conjuring up other world's out of lampshades and cardboard and spam.

i did a very brief reading at the oxfam shop on marylebone high st this morning as part of the 24 hour oxfam bookfest readathon. i assumed it would be impolite to read from my own work but esther freud read from her as-yet-unpublished new novel so i reholstered my silas marner and read from the red house the novel i'm writing at the moment and which, fortuitously, i had in my bag for editing on the hoof.

i've just finished teaching at arvon with william fiennes (see the first story link on the left and read the music room) at the lumb bank centre. teaching with will is always wonderful, we had fantastic students who produced some amazing pieces of writing and, on the final day, when the last tutorials were done, liz flanagan, one of the centre directors, drove us for a swim at lumb falls, which almost instantly became one of my favourite places. anywhere.

swimming in the thames / the rise of the novel by ian watt / walking the dog by david hughes / longview estate darjeeling tea