From Tomas Straussler to Tom Stoppard; Zlin, Singapore, Mumbai, Bristol, London, back, spiritually, to the Czech Republic; and a reasonable shot at dominating the stage through the late twentieth century and into the twenty-first; author of Arcadia, where Septimus says to Thomasina, 'We shed as we pick up, like travellers who must carry everything in their arms, and what we let fall will be picked up by those behind. The procession is very long and life is very short. We die on the march. But there is nothing outside the march so nothing can be lost to it.' Illustrated; 950+pp.