Spent one more of my favourite sort of days lounging by the fabulous pool at Hotel Amitie, where the gilded youth of Bamako are smoking Hubblibubblies, flirting and laughing as if their country were in the best of health...All was well until Keita phoned me with the devastating news that Kona had been taken by the Islamists- although at one point the army seems not only to have repelled them, but to have advanced successfully as far as Douentza. I am leaving tonight for London for two weeks- what will happen in these two weeks? Will I even be able to return? My mind is torn between being happy to go to London and at the same time not wanting to leave the theatre before the play is over!