Hamlet with my girls

Of course they are not girls, they are middle-aged women but they will always be my girls. What a fantastic and stimulating day!

Train chaos meant Jenny and I were out at 8.30 am to get over to Edinburgh in time for our first event. We were in time to have a coffee before my daughters phoned to say they were already at the venue for Clive Stafford Smith in conversation with Frankie Boyle. It seemed an incongruous coupling but worked well. #2 daughter had met CSS when she worked in London and was involved with Liberty. He’s such an admirable person and his talk about the US justice system (or lack thereof) and his work there trying to save people from death was fascinating and humbling. He spoke of the emotional damage to him from being sent to boarding school aged 7. He’s a Socialist but explained that our current PM’s lack of empathy would be as a result of having been put in the same situation. He said private schools should be abolished and they certainly shouldn’t have charitable status which allowed them to buy anything cheaper than state schools could. That got a cheer despite Edinburgh having more private schools per head of population than anywhere in UK. He spoke at length about his current book about his father who was bipolar, and his resulting views on mental health issues. A young woman in the audience pointed out that Scotland has the highest number per head of population in prison than anywhere in Europe. The situation of children being in care then in prison was also discussed. We all couldn’t stop discussing the issues raised through the day.

Both daughters bought his book and lined up to get it signed. He asked them what their job was and took time to have a conversation. He had a good chat with #3 about her role as a Sociology teacher and told her his son was at a state school where they invited their Tory MP into the school to be questioned and put on trial by the pupils.

The four of us went for a wonderful lunch, ALMOST too pretty to eat, at Rico’s, then walked down to see “Hamlet” with Ian McKellan. Yesterday I heard some people gave it 2 stars and others 4, so I was wondering what our undiscerning eyes would make of it. We loved it. #3 daughter was the only one who’d studied it for A level, but that didn’t matter as we were all so close to the stage we could see the exaggerated expressions of the dancers so we were able to work it out. We enjoyed getting a ballet bonus with McKellan doing his stuff. It was all very enjoyable, dramatic and effectively staged. Jenny had seen McKellan in the role when she was a student and found it sad to see him old. I, on the other hand, was very impressed he could kneel down and stand up again unaided.

We then walked to our trains. Ours was busy but I was able to sit with the daughters on the way home, getting off at Alnmouth while they continued to Newcastle.

I’m still buzzing