Kage Baker always came home happy from the Opening Day of Dickens Christmas Fair – and collapsed. It is exhausting; one is not yet hardened to a day of unrelenting Victoriana and Extreme Christmas. It is wondrous fun, exhilirating and amazing: but one also has to survive two more days of this …

In honour of Kage, and because I am walking into the walls with tiredness, I am now going to collapse. But it’s a matter of personal discipline to post at least a little.

So: it was a grand Opening. The crowds were good, and eager to be enchanted. The Greeen Man Parlour is as beautiful as a dream this year – my staff and family were superhuman, perfect, constantly on stage, on their marks and in character.

 True, my costume was possessed and kept falling off or open at odd moments, but that is one of the things all the layers are for. If a small girl steps on the back of your skirt and it starts to fall off, for instance, the hoop and lacy bloomers keep things suspended until you can grab the waitband. The audience will never figure out that the glimpse of black and silver brocade is your actual (blush!) corset, but simply assume it’s something else peculiar you are wearing …

More details later, Dear Readers. For now – oh, my, I am fading away …

Tomorrow: more !