Master and commander

My dear Spitfire pilot father firmly believed that most of life’s disasters were down to what he referred to as ‘pilot error’. This bleak view that when things go wrong it’s more than likely to be your fault is not so easy to accept; it would be much more comforting to be able to blame something or someone else. Sadly, I’ve come to see that the Old Man was probably right – when you drop the unopened bottle of 18-year-old malt, it’s no good looking round for someone to blame. From my own experience, he was certainly right regarding people who come to auditions and people who come for help with training their dogs.

You’d never believe the litany of excuses made by people who came to audition for shows I was involved in: “I didn’t get the score until yesterday”; “the baby had a rough night”; “I’ve