Mind your language | 25 October 2003

I am looking forward to reading The Floating Prison, the memoirs of a French prisoner, Louis Garneray, who became an artist while captive in the hulks in Portsmouth harbour between 1806 and 1814. It is edited by the learned Richard Rose, who has just written to me about rafalés — insane and insatiable gamblers in the scuppers, as it were, of hulk society.

But before I forget, did you see that play in London, See You Next Tuesday? It is a version of Le D