Changing Places, Small World and Nice Work, by David Lodge are comic novels that I thoroughly enjoyed though at thirty years distance I couldn't tell you much about them, nor could I name a single other novel by him.

Now he's written an autobiography so I thought it would be interesting to hear him and it was.  The event was in the form of an interview although he did read from the book, or as he explained an edited composite covering his relationship with Malcolm Bradbury and his fascination with America, these being two topics suggested by his interviewer.

It was a very enjoyable session and I'm now encouraged to add some of his other work to the big pile of books to be read that is building up on my shelves and in my head.

It was also a great relief after the well nigh unbearable session I went to yesterday.  I didn't bear it in fact, see later.

This was about The Wake, a novel set in the Fens in the years following the Battle of Hastings.  The author filled in historical detail in a jokey 1066 and All That manner - "William was a little put out so he had them boiled in oil and then went home for his tea" sort of thing, interspersed with readings from the book by the now renowned actor Mark Rylance and a related folky story told to the beat of his bodrum by a chap called Martin Shaw.

Rylance dressed in combat trousers and a funny hat intoned the cod Anglo-Saxon ( sorry the publicity calls it contemporary Anglo-Saxon whatever that means) tale of  guerrilla warfare against the Normans.  Shaw in another funny hat tells a story about a child, later man, with golden hair who is clearly Hereward The Wake.  The publicity tells us the story has not been told aloud for a thousand years and I can believe it.

The session was scheduled to last an hour and a half but as time wore on I thought how long that was and more and more about escape. Being in the middle of a row I was reluctant to make a move.  At the ninety minute mark there was no sign of our being near a conclusion and I grew even more restive.  Happily the lady next to me had also had enough, or maybe she just had to get somewhere, so I slipped or in fact clattered (the wooden stairs!) out under her cover.

But The Guardian, and no doubt others, loved the book, "A Literary Triumph".  Maybe it just suffered from its presentation and I should give it a try.  Maybe.

I thought Antigone, which I went to after that, also suffered from its presentation.  Not the staging and so forth.  That was fine although the upper level should have been higher or raked towards the back to minimise the masking that occurred.

No, it's the acting style that I didn't much care for.  Now this is not a wee domestic drama.  It's all about obedience to the law, the rights of rulers, loyalty to the state, a greater power than the king etc. etc. so a serious not to say grim approach to the representation of the characters caught up in the  situation is not surprising.  But at the same time these are people and it is their feelings as much as their ideas that should come over to the audience and for me at least that didn't happen.