I confess to never having read anything by the great Thomas Mann although I have seen his work in the form of the opera Werther and the film Death in Venice.  His son Klaus was also a writer and according to Alan Massie while Thomas was interesting as a writer Klaus was much more interesting as a man.

So much more interesting to Massie that he has written a novella called Klaus which is a fictionalised version of his life.  So interesting was his talk on the subject that I have bought the book and placed it on my pile of unread masterpieces for later consumption.

Eagerly looked forward to have been the James plays, a trilogy by Rona Munro about James I, James II and James III who were kings of Scotland in the 15th century.  This is a joint production by the EIF, the National Theatre and the National Theatre of Scotland and all three are directed by Laurie Sansom who took over artistic direction of  the NTS quite recently.

I saw them in a oner yesterday and thought they were stunning.  Check out the broadsheets for reviews, most of which are very favourable.  My favourite of the three was James II which the critics favoured least.  So much for the critics is what I say.