The Doctor of Honour

Written: 1982

Calderón; Crawford Arts Centre, St. Andrews

This was the subject of my PhD thesis at St. Andrews. I worked on it for 3 years, abandoned it, became a bus conductor and a nurse and then, eventually, returned to it. I had the strongest and strangest feeling that I had to finish the thesis before I could become a writer.

To try to get me back into the thesis, I decided to translate the play.

My wife Susie showed it to a colleague at the BBC, Robert Livingston (who now runs Hi-Arts) and he told me “You can write dialogue”.

I hadn’t known before...