Where?

Have you missed me? Where have I been this week?

When the Royal Shakespeare Company announce a new production of a major Shakespeare play and David Tennant's in it there's a gale force wind over Stratford on Avon as the tickets whoosh out of the box office. We didn't stand a chance of getting seats for the Stratford production. But we did manage to book for the London run, so that's where I was on Friday night - at the Barbican in London watching a charismatic actor lead a company of rare brilliance and accomplishment in Richard II. It was one of those productions that sweeps you away to a different somewhere altogether, from the first ominous gathering with the Duke of Gloucester's coffin dominating the stage to the final realisation that whatever Henry IV does now, he will be haunted by his actions.

Richard was graceful, charming, vain and self-obsessed, in need of a shake and an ear-bending. He was also the one who engaged your sympathies at the end. That's as it should be. And Oliver Ford-Davies was outstanding as the Duke of York struggling to be loyal, to be reasonable, to make the best of a bad job while feeling that really he's too old for all this and he'd much rather go home to his missus.

If you're into Shakespeare, all that made sense. If you're not, I'll just tell you that the next day we left for our favourite hiding place in Kent and I spent Sunday afternoon with my godchildren, climbing trees. Did you know a rhododendron is a den and a climbing frame all in one?