[Insert Hackneyed End-of-Year Phrase Here]

Well, here it is – my last post of 2010. It’s been my first full year of blogging and I must say I’ve quite enjoyed it. I’ve tried to blog reasonably regularly (roughly once a week or so), but also tried to avoid blogging just for the sake of it (i.e. when I really didn’t have anything of interest to report). Thanks to all of you that swing by regularly or infrequently to check in on my rambling, especially to my two wonderful followers below. I promise next year to make a bigger effort in networking on the blogosphere.

I read today that Harriet Walter has just been made a dame, which is fantastic. It’s rare for an actress who hasn’t had significant exposure in film or television to receive this honour, so this is also a win for theatre, in my opinion. I had the pleasure of meeting Harriet last year. We’d just seen her in the Broadway production of Mary Stuart (along with Janet McTeer) and were roaming the streets of New York looking for a place to eat late, when suddenly there she was up ahead, walking straight towards us. Of course, we stopped and chatted and congratulated her on her fantastic performance, and she was absolutely lovely. She said she found it rather odd that when in London she was rarely ever recognized, but whenever she visited New York she invariably was. Anyway, I’m very pleased for her. I also liked what she had to say about receiving the award. She said she had mixed feelings about it, as the voting system for them didn’t seem very fair, and that lots of people who should be getting similar recognition weren’t. But she said that she’d use hers in the defense of theatre (meaning, of course, against those axe-wielding yahoos in Whitehall that view the arts as…well, you know).

So onward we go. My new writing project is coming along very well – better than I expected, actually – and I have another couple of projects in the pipeline, so I’m going to be kept very busy in the coming weeks.

I hope the New Year will bring all good things to you, especially good health and happiness.

See you next year!