First the article in the Times supplement, then the Radio 4 interview with Janet Behan, capped by years of hearing of and about Brendan Behan left me with little choice - I had to go and see this at The Riverside Studios in Hammersmith last week. Adrian Dunbar was the main man so I expected a queue.

There wasn't one. The auditorium was only partially occupied and I felt bad for the cast. The play covered Behan's last few weeks in the Chelsea Hotel in NY and charted his fall off the wagon into the grave. It should have been sombre but it wasn't. The language was expletive, profane even, but the humour, the wit, the sheer joy of it made you laugh when you should have been crying.

And Adrian Dunbar was transformed. Brilliant. I wrote the cast a note the next day saying they should have had a bigger audience - not to let the number that attended on the Wed night make them lose heart. If it comes on again, anywhere, go see it.

Honestly. Tie the heartstrings tight first and leave the expletive filter at home.

This week I braved the early morning M25 and set off to Rochester, Kent to talk to the WI. This was booked months ago, the first of many talks this year and so it set the standard.

What a lovely year I have in store -a warm welcome, coffee and cakes, an attentive audience - what more could you wish for on a cold February morning? It makes up all the lonely hours sitting in front of a screen, trying to reason with characters who will not behave as I expect and unlike me, aren't trying to follow the plot.

I've had one very truculent character this week.Her name is Tina and my plan was for her to have a bit part in this book. Tinais a Muriel Spark character, unreliable,delusional and gloriously self absorbed. I only needed her to answer the phone and stay quietly in the background while I figure out how to weave a backstory into the present predicament. Our Tina has other plans. She's one woman hissy fitting hussy and I cannot keep her down. Six solid hours with her on Monday and I needed the WI, and the coffee and the cakes to restore my sanity.

Thank God for the WI. Ilook forward to to the next talk.