Dale Smith: by day, mild mannered librarian at Manchester University’s biggest library; by night, asleep. Described as “frighteningly direct” by The Times and “frankly, bollocks” by Time Out, Dale worked with IRDP when his first play Hello? won the Woolwich Young Radio Playwrights' Competition in 1993, and then again in 1995 when director Tim Crook was foolhardy enough to unleash The Kissing Game on the Tristan Bates Theatre. Since then, he has won the Manchester Student Playwriting Competition (twice), been performed at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe (twice), and been part of the Manchester Royal Exchange’s First Eleven Project (once). Despite all this success, Dale remains a low-key figure in the history of the British Theatre and - on the advice of his bank manager - has taken up a day job, so that he can not give it up. His next play is due to be performed in and around Northamptonshire in September 2000, juggling the Battle of Naseby with a talking horse. You really had to be there at the time. Dale's first novel has just been published: a BBC book called Heritage, part of the Dr Who original novels series.