writing the play. We know Montaigne had secretaries, and mine – a young man – just walked unexpectedly into the first scene (he hadn’t featured in any of my synopses). Increasingly he took over, shifting the balance of the piece. There was a plot – Montaigne was on a mission to reconcile murderous opposites in the French Wars of Religion, the fate of the country was at stake and so on - but the whole emphasis of the piece shifted in the writing, away from plot. What looked good on the page in advance (the selling document or synopsis that gets you the go ahead) went background. Derring-do was promised. I delivered on that but the plots and schemes and harum scarums subsided - not exactly background –but taking their place in what had become a character piece. The play described (dread TV phrase) a journey, and a pretty unusual and vital one. But the interest became the developing relationship between Montaigne and his secretary. There are events and obstacles on the way, of course, (but aren't very interesting to script) and, at worse, can easily become one damn thing after another, c.f. 'Lord of the Rings' – the film version. I saw the first part (never to return to the franchise) one cold winter's night at a little 'village' cinema in Fakenham, a meeting room, where they offer you tea and biscuits. I'd been in Norfolk for a week or two, writing and more or less cheerfully isolated, and was looking forward after the