I finished John Julius Norwich's History of France.

I gulped up four episodes of History on Fire's interpretation of the story of Joan of Arc.  (A beautifully eloquent Italian professor who spent six months reading and kindly condensed it into just under 8 hours.) 

And then I felt readier to begin rehearsals. 

I'm feeling an odd historical responsibility to get the story straight in my mind. I imagine the actors will ask me a difficult and detailed question which I have to be able to answer. And actually, it's all a bit daft as all we really have to go on is what's in the script.  

While I fantasise that someone could hold up placards explaning all my background knowledge as we skip through the necessarily version of events, I suspect the audience may not welcome it.

So instead, this has turned into a series of 'character workshops' with the actors that have me babbling, pouring out and exhaustively sharing all that I've learnt. So the poor things turn up to talk about their character and wind up being hit over the head with a history essay. (I flatter myself. Hit over the head with a few scraps of half-remembered knowledge really.)

It's off going from having directed a couple of things that actually involved almost no prep as it was all in my head to going to something where there is a stack of knowledge available, should you wish it.

I've ordered another book. I'm hoping it arrives very soon.