Caroline Harker as Garry’s wife, Pooky Quesnel as the secretary, and Kim Thomson as the producer’s wife all give nicely judged performances that are in keeping with the period.The frequency with which Garry changes his bedmates – about as often as he does his socks – might not be depicted in the most realistic manner, but one has to hand it to Coward for knowing how to keep the audience from disliking his philandering hero. Garry is no corrupter of the young or faithful: silly girls and depraved women throw themselves at him so persistently one can hardly blame the poor man for giving in. Afterwards, Garry’s wife bawls him out, saying that, at his age (40), he ought to be giving up that sort of thing.In Garry, Coward is clearly parodying and celebrating himself, but he may also have been influenced by one of his admirers. Eric Dare, the author in Cole Porter’s Jubilee (1935), is caught out when he opens his heart to a woman who recognises the speech as being from one of Dare’s plays In Present Laughter the same thing happens to Garry. Is this a case of art imitating art imitating art? Continues at the Theatre Royal, Bath, 24-29 March (01225 448844). Zadie Smith and Donna Tartt will compete against each other and 18 rivals for the Orange Prize for Fiction, the organisers announced yesterday.

Until last year’s revamping of the Booker, it was Britain’s most valuable literary prize.It is open to any woman writing in English, and, therefore, the only prize in which Smith and Tartt, a Briton and an American, could be pitted against each other. After the publication of her international bestseller, The Secret History, Tartt retreated into a 10-year silence before releasing The Little Friend, a gothic murder mystery set in her native Mississippi.Zadie Smith, a Cambridge graduate aged 23 when White Teeth was published, waited nearly three years before publishing The Autograph Man, but her experience of the burden of celebrity was already sufficiently intense to make it one of the dominant themes. In spite of their massive (in literary terms) celebrity, neither has so far garnered a big prize.This year’s long list, competing for £30,000, also includes novels by Carol Shields, who won the prize in 1998, Edna O’Brien, Lucy Ellman and Shena Mackay. There are nine North Americans, eight Britons, and one Australian and the list includes eight first novels. “There are,” says the author and broadcaster Kate Mosse, founder of the prize, “a lot of big names with strong books, strong newcomers and a few wild cards. It is a very wide open field.”Ms Mosse refuses to see the contest as a head-to-head between Smith and Tartt and she is probably right The Orange Prize has a track record for surprises The winner will be announced on 3 June.

THE ORANGE PRIZE LONG LISTBella Bathurst Special (Picador)Sandra Cisneros Caramelo (Bloomsbury)Janet Davey English Correspondence. The Battle of Agincourt

The Battle of Agincourt
Jehan de Wavrin24 October 1415When the King of England [Henry V, left] saw it was already late, he made all his army draw towards Maisoncelles, which was near; but before he lay down he gave liberty to the prisoners, nobles, and others, who were at that time with his army, they promising him that if the victory turned on his side they would all return to him and to their masters if they were living, but if it fell to him to lose the battle, he for ever freed them from fealty and ransom. After the prisoners were thus liberated, the King of England lodged in [...] Maisoncelles, so near his enemies that the foremost of his vanguard saw them quite plainly, and heard them call each other by name, and make a great noise; but as for the English, never did people make less noise, for hardly did one hear them utter a word, or speak together. The Battle of Trafalgar Midshipman Badcock of the ‘Neptune’21 October 1805In our fleet Union Jacks and ensigns were made fast to the fore and fore-topmast-stays, as well as to the mizzen rigging, besides one at the peak, in order that we might not mistake each other in the smoke, and to show the enemy our determination to conquer. Towards eleven our two lines were better formed, but still there existed long gaps in Vice-Admiral Collingwood’s division. The van of Lord Nelson [above] was strong: three three-deckers – Victory, Temeraire, and Neptune – and four seventy-fours, their jib-booms nearly over the others’ taffrails. The bands playing “God Save the King”, “Rule Britannia”, and “Britons, Strike Home”, the crews stationed on the forecastles of the different ships, cheering the ship ahead of them when the enemy, began to fire, sent those feelings to our hearts that insured victory.