[...] For many years of pulling my show together, I seemed to see no more of Chekhov than an occasional figure looking in at the back of the stalls and mutely leaving again; now I have more confidence in my right to approach his table. He could be so silly, I have learned, and I even have a couple of bones to pick with him, such as his dismissal of Vladimir Nabokov's great-aunt, a pioneer of women's education, as a frog, and his serious underrating of Stanislavsky. But this was also the stubborn conscience that defended Captain Dreyfus, that cared for countless sick peasants and built schools and libraries; the voice that used to declare that to enquire into the meaning of life is as senseless as to ask the meaning of a carrot, and that it is ridiculous to have deep conversations about the future when you don't have a decent pair of trousers. [...]

· Are You There, Crocodile? - Inventing Anton Chekhov by Michael Pennington is published by Oberon... Michael Pennington plays Anton Chekhov at the National Theatre, London...