Stephen Herrick

I did.

Last year, my wife and I went there, mainly to pay homage at the Johnston Clift house that still stands, thankfully.

And even though they left 55 years ago, I only had to ask one waiter to find out where they lived.

and he could direct me straight away to the Australian house.

So it shows the impression they left, I guess, but also it shows that people, there are still people like me who want a journey to Hydra to pay homage.

We also went up to Leonard Cohen's house as well, of course.

They did and ended up on a Greek island called Kalmanos first because they were researching a novel, a book they were going to write together there and they stayed there for a year.

And in that time, Charmian wrote a book called Mermaid Singing.

about their time there.

And then they went to Hydra, where they bought a house and stayed for almost 10 years.

And Charmian also wrote a book about that called Peel Me a Lotus.

And George Johnson wrote the very famous My Brother Jack near the end of that time there.

There was a lot of drinking, a lot of poor behaviour, some hints of illicit affairs and probably definitely affairs, and lots of public tantrums, really, which are highlighted in this book we're talking about, A Theatre of Dreams.

A Theatre for Dreams, for dreamers, I should say.

See, I'm getting my football references mixed up.

A Theatre of Dreams is the name of Old Trafford Stadium or the...

Sorry about that.

Theatre for Dreamers by Polly Sansom goes into great detail on the relationship between George Johnston and Charmaine Clift.

Charmian is really the main character, the tool to force of this novel, to be honest.

My Brother Jack was one of the first books I read as a teenager.