Wrestling with Buckland.

After three great days in Newquay working on the plays for this year's Playhouse Project, and lapping up the sunshine and the sea air and now it's back to wrestling with Buckland. I heard some more of the music from part one this morning and some of the songs used my words which was a big thrill. But there's still part two to finish, and a deadline getting closer and closer.
There's a moment that comes after all the drafts, all the research, all the fretting when you say to yourself all I've got to do is write it. That's when you know you've got to the final draft. And I'm not there yet by a country mile.
On Wednesday we're off to Oxford to talk to Jim Kennedy the director the Natural History Museum that Buckland founded. On the phone this morning I was able to reassure him that we will certainly have Buckland's tame bear in the script, not to mention his horse. It was quite obvious in a brief phone call that he rates the man, has a sense of humour, and is going to be a fund of information. I want to try out our take on him and see how he reacts. See what he thinks about how we've treated Richard Owen. Basically I want to be patted on the head and told that I haven't got it all arse about face by someone who really knows. Very worrying writing about real people, even if they're a long time dead.