Virginia Woolf was brought to life so vividly and plausibly on Sunday evening.

Eileen Atkins has been performing this lecture, first delivered by Woolf in 1928, for more than 20 years.

I can see why it's so popular, because it is a rallying cry to women now, perhaps a less surprising one than in the Twenties, and will be used in generations to come until women truly are equal with men in the world that counts.

The premise is Woolf speaking to a group of Cambridge students at Girton College, the only all-female institution in the university at that time.

The subject is women and fiction, which Woolf/Atkins, dressed in convincing Twenties clothing, is uncertain about.

Is it women writing fiction, woman as fiction, woman in fiction or what? So she just lets her mind wander over all aspects, starting with the opinion that a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction.

The condition of women through the ages, in witty and sharp words, are exposed, with Woolf declaring it would have been impossible for a woman to have written like Shakespeare because of her lot.

But she imagined a character, Shakespeare's sister, Judith, who had the same capabilities as her brother but was thwarted by society, "a worm winged like an eagle".

It is using her as inspiration that Woolf calls all women to be themselves and to ensure the days of the Judiths of womankind are no more.

Atkins was masterly I felt as if Woolf was before me. She acknowledged director Patrick Garland, who was unable to see this first performance in "Woolf country" because he is ill, as the man who saw the lecture's dramatic capabilities.

So remember and I would say it applies to men as well as women: You need a bit of cash and your own space in order to write fiction.