The strange tale of Alan Ayckbourn

How delightful. Alan Ayckbourn's life appears to be exactly like something out of one of his own plays. When the 71-year-old (pictured) bumped into Anthony Kelly as he prowled around Ayckbourn's large home stealing items worth £13,375, the two men exchanged pleasant greetings. Ayckbourn assumed the intruder was just a visitor, probably looking in on a member of his housekeeping staff. Only later, when he discovered that many things were missing, did the playwright put two and two together. It seems most odd, a lifestyle that allows one to bump into total strangers in one's own home, and think nothing of it. But lightly worn and generous-spirited wealth seems so much more attractive than paranoid, gated- community wealth. It's a shame that Ayckbourn is now likely to be leaning towards the latter.