Friedrich --

The Telegraph runs a brief but amusing excerpt from playwright Alan Ayckbourn's new book "The Crafty Art of Playmaking," here.

Do you know Ayckbourn's plays? I like 'em: Sly and virtuosic, even while working a familiar dowdy-yet-amusing Brit vein.

Sample passage:

Ironically, when the play went to the West End in the so-called Swinging Sixties, I was asked to reset the first scene to the day before, around 4pm - the argument being that the audiences would be less shocked at seeing a young unmarried couple waking up together in the afternoon than in the morning. The logic in this confounded me. You mean they couldn't have been making love in the afternoon? So much for the traditional unities. I guess Aristotle hadn't reckoned with that one.

Best,

Michael