Looking back at a few posts, I realise they have been hugely nostalgic! So it’s probably no surprise that I am massively enjoying Tim West’s autobiography from 2001. Tim writes about the life I thought I was going to enjoy when I became a professional – based on the presumption that the theatre industry he had worked in was still there to inhabit. Whereas in fact, I was unaware that throughout my teens I was watching the end of theatre as it had been for decades – repertory theatres, with a permanent company of actors, doing up to 45 plays a year, written by all manner of authors. I had spent eight years watching all kinds of shows at the Bristol Old Vic – not all great – but all captivating by their very nature. And after leaving the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, my first two jobs were two plays at Oxford and four plays at Basingstoke – and that’s as close as I ever got to experiencing Tim West’s life! Which is why I went on to build a theatre company, to try and recreate the theatre world I wanted to spend my life in. (Incidentally, I interviewed Tim West at my school when I was fifteen to raise money for Leukemia Research, and when Tim said he was next appearing in the film Oliver Twist, from the back of the audience my Mum shouted out: “Oh, Neal was in Oliver!”)