In Verona, scene is laid.

5 years of flowering and these geraniums still going strong.

Nearly 40% of schoolleavers (should be more re “growth” in other major economies) become graduates, making them one of the largest shared interest groups in British society across coming decades. But sure, that’s under 50%, so sacrifice them to The Taxpayer (presumably not these specific taxpayers).

Anyone interested in playhouses and their legacies, please do consider registering for this @saaupdates.bsky.social semina!

Bank holiday heat

Great to spend morning w Ralph Treswell's 1600s surveys. Amazing to map tiny details of an inn & its yard (like the Crown in Aldgate) & pick up the quirks of London's properties: a shop vs a "fair shop"; "a little Closset hanging into the streete"; "drinking rooms" open.substack.com/pub/shakespe...

A brilliant, barnstorming inaugural lecture by the incomparable Prof. Tara Hamling 🔥🎨🖌️👀

Attempting some outdoor editing but our neighbour’s cat has other ideas/strong theatre history critiques

Enter, a full draft. [Anxious music plays.] #CurtainBook

A quick glance back that never disappoints

This place lives in my head rent free, so a pleasure & privilege to visit Almagro’s 1628 corral de comedias. One of world’s oldest surviving theatres, an uncanny analogue to the Curtain playhouse #CurtainBook. Grateful to the city & Councillor Genaro Galàn Garcia for their generous hospitality.

New writing view to my right: mapped Tudor London (as reconstructed by Historic Towns Trust). #CurtainBook

Whole rabbit, wild mushroom, and pearl barley casserole for dinner. January warmer.

Superb Fra Angelico exhibition at Palazzo Strozzi in Florence, fraturing some impressive restoration work and neat room curations (showing Northern Renaissance and Eastern influences, via Van Eyck and carpetwork respectively). Benissimo!

Festivities imminent, home-made sloe gin decanted.

Curiously worded (and spuriously located?) heritage sign by Southampton’s harbourfront

With a department research exchange coming up tomorrow, instead of a paper I’m delivering some new writing… as a board game! Hoping some conversation starters in here, following street encounters with a host of fascinating (real) playgoers from 1611. #CurtainBook

A commuter tonic en route to Southampton: framed sunrise and frost over the rolling Hampshire landscape.

Sign. Motto.

Coq au vin with baby onions braised and caramelised in some homemade pheasant stock, on a serving platter for our Sunday comfort food.

The perfect pre-weekend arrival

Pickled quinces (from my mum’s garden) to be ready for the Christmas table

Signs it’s the New Forest

Seeking writing energy from a richly autumnal New Forest today.

St Giles, Camberwell earlier today

Impossible to tire of Southampton’s Tudor House

Ah, Friday afternoon, my last commute from Southampton to London of the week…

“Woodhouse, alias Woodhouse.” Great work, no notes…

Campus looking beautifully autumnal today @unisouthampton.bsky.social

Neat mini-exhibition on Shakespeare at @thelondonarchives.bsky.social featuring a Stuart printing of the Agas map, the Blackfriars gatehouse deed, and Keats’s First Folio.