Better, Alasdair supposed, to do Shakespeare and the like four times a year. It probably wasn't fair to the Bard to hold a grudge because of one theatre director, but at least it guaranteed that his students got a broader base. Since he refused to teach more than one Shakespearean play a year.

And he supposed most people would say he was better off not wasting his time writing plays that owed more to Eugene O'Neill, considering his own strengths. But he still hadn't entirely accepted that success as a writer of potboilers was the most success he'd ever get.

"Not completely, no," he said with a shrug. "But she did have to get threatened with termination to write final exams this year. I heard the dean muttering about teenagers, and for once he wasn't talking about the student body."