The tiny Hertfordshire village of Ayot St Lawrence is hidden away in the depths of the countryside, though only an hour or so away from the middle of London.
Shaw wrote that it was a 'twelfth-century village where the last thing of real importance that had happened was, perhaps, the Flood'. There are several suggested meanings for 'ayot': the most logical is that it means a 'gap' or an 'island' and even these days, when it rains heavily over the winter and the single-track approach roads flood, it still maintains that feeling. The Shaws had been living in the area ...