Down House (Re) Visited
I take a physical trip to a place where I've spent ages in my head and in my heart.
I’ve got a lot of time for Charles Darwin.
He’s welcome in my head anytime. We hang out together for ages during a frenetic and wonderful period in my life when I’m writing one of my more successful plays1.
I dash it off in the course of a month, simultaneously hoovering up biographies (mainly) and his writing (some, I find it dense), while doing an convincing impression of working on the thing I’m actually being paid to do.
Now, years later, I drive from London to physically immerse myself in his house, which is preserved by English Heritage.
There are two places that I want to tell you about.