No need to miss London last week as London came to us... well, for an evening at least. Rob Ryan has a show at the beautiful Charleston country house and was ferrying friends and family by the coach-load for the preview, so we headed down too. One of us drank milk, one of us drank juice, and the other had too much gin. As for the show, it's as you'd expect; brilliant.

Even if you feel you've seen a lot of of Rob's style recently (appropriated everywhere by big business), you'll reminded of his ceaseless creativity, innate decorative hand, touching aphorisms and disarming sincerity. If you're searching the area for inspiration this summer, then a visit to Charleston is essential... gin entirely optional.

• Maybe pick up your copy of SPQR (pictured) while you're there too