Admiración.

Probablemente esté desde hace mucho out of my mind, pero este hombre es una fuente de admiración y de talento inagotable.

[...]

And that's basically it. Repeat until mad. Or until the audience finds something shinier somewhere else. Six years in, it's hard to believe that out efforts are still being received, and received well, here and overseas. I was screamed at in Italy and chased in Spain. Chased, i tell you. I think they might have chased me in France, too, if it hadn't risked spoiling the crease in their trousers. The foreign response is particularly surprising, given the show's densely verbal, idiomatic texture. I can understand the global appeal of cop shows, where a lengthy line of dialogue might be "get in the car" -- but what on earth does a Turkish translator do with "I promise you, the next knitting injury that comes in here, we're on it like stink on cheese"? I suppose I will never know. One of our regular directors, Juan Campanella (Academy Award this year - oh yes, we run with the right people) told me that he'd seen a translated film in his native Argentina, where the word "chip" (as in "chip on his shoulder") was renderer as "microchip". I mean, what?

Ah well. I have probably detained you long enough. The amuse-bouche is over. If you're still standing in the bookstore, trying to decide whether this book is worth the cover price, I think you now have more than enough information. I say, go for it. It's not much more than a bag of blueberry muffins, and you never know -- you might find it interesting.

HUGH LAURIE

New Rochelle, New York

April 2010.