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Hello and welcome to Empire with me, Anita Arneth.

And me, William de Ripple.

He's sounding so spry, considering he's on the other side of the world in Australia,

having just come off stage, having just wowed thousands of people.

And it's now almost midnight where you are, isn't it?

It is, but I've had quite a few espresso. So I'm quite wide away from Perky, actually.

I know.

Slightly worries me, actually, your yin and yang,

because you sort of started, we were doing our tech check and he had a gin and tonic.

And then you said, oh, just a moment.

And you got yourself an espresso.

So this cocktail is going to play havoc with your stomach.

I find that it's a very good cocktail, up and down it.

Are you going to be? That is more of a worry than how articulate I'm going to be after the gin-tonic. But let's see. You're going to be fabulously articulate, and there's no one

better to talk about this, because this is right in your wheelhouse, because we are talking about

barber. Now, this is all sort of, you know, entwined with, there's a fantastic exhibition at the Victorian Albert Museum in London,

if you get a chance to go, the great moguls, art, architecture, and opulence. And arguably,

one of the greatest names, and certainly the first name, is Barbor, and someone you know so well,

because you wrote an introduction to something called the Barbaranama. Now, first of all, tell

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