The Singing Rabbitte:

1.

I’m in London, for rehearsals of a musical version of my novel, The Commitments.  I wrote the book – the book of the book; I find it easier thinking of it as the script – so I’ve been here since early August, watching a gang of people construct a show out of lines and details on 127 pages of script.

I’m staying in Earl’s Court and usually enter the Tube station from the Warwick Road side, at the Exhibition Centre.  On Friday I walked into the station and saw hundreds of women coming at me.  Hundreds of women, and one man.  I looked back at the Exhibition Centre to see what was on: the Bake and Cake Show.

The women all looked like keen cake eaters and the man, about my age, maybe a bit younger, was holding hands with, actually clinging to one of them.  He looked terrified, like a kid afraid he’d lose his mammy in the crowd.

I … Read More »