The Place
12 May

I was hardly home than I was off again - this time by train to the Metropolis to see son Robert lifting a leg with his fellow dancers.

Robert has been in a postgraduate company called EDge, based at the Place, home of Ballet Rambert, for the past year. I'd missed out on seeing the earlier performances of the tour and this Monday night was the only one I could attend before the company headed on out to places like Denmark and Portugal.

I really enjoyed the performance. Robert only appeared in one piece Almost but he was stunning. For a big chap, well over six foot tall, he can cover an amazing amount of ground with speed and style. And he has presence. Probably only two other dancers, Keir Patrick and Rosalind Noctor, had that as well as technical excellence. Robert is not as good a technical dancer but, when he is on stage, you certainly want to look at him.

We also had lunch the following day before I caught my train back up North. And that was good too. Just talking and chatting about life, the world and everything with my son.

I'd stayed overnight with James and his partner Paul and their hound, Velcro, so called because of the way he sticks to you. It was good seeing them too.

Less good was the appearance of Richard among the audience. He was just as obnoxious as ever using every question as an opportunity to tell me stuff about him. I'll swear that every time we meet, he tells me that the composition of the Quaker Meeting is elderly and that they quote Goethe during meetings.

Still I was well content on the train journey back. I polished off a biography of Charles Hawtrey called The Man Who Was Private Widdle which was alright but didn't offer any new insights. I also completed what is certainly my book of the year at the moment - The Curious Incident of The Dog in The Night-Time. I just cannot praise this book too much. It takes you inside the head of teenager living with Asperger's Syndrome and, in fact, it is almost too successful at drawing you into an emotionally dissociated mind. I found myself becoming more and more disturbed as the book moved on. There is one section in the London Underground which is absolutely terrifying.

And it's a kids book. It won the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize as well as the Whitbread Book of the Year. I don't know what it is with young persons' literature these days but it comes up with much more interesting things than most so-called adult fiction. A decided five starts for this one.