May Fayre Fever

[Chris]

A young friend of mine, a would be Punch prof, is going to Turkey for a two week Easter holiday. He's far more excited about the May Fayre than his foreign holiday and every time he meets me he asks if I know how long before Covent Garden, and when I give some approximation he gleefully tells me to the exact day.
In the 1980s I did visit Turkey since Istanbul was one of our ports of call when I was performing on The Calipso, a Greek cruise ship. I loved Topkapi, the palace which figured in a the film "Topkapi", the classic jewel heist movie, and also St. Sophia, a former Greek Orthodox Christian cathedral, later an Ottoman imperial mosque and now a museum. Quite splendid!
I searched but never tracked down Mr.Punch's cousin Karagoz in Istanbul, although I did find him in Greece. But that's a story waiting to be written up for the PunchandJudy.com website.



This is all just an excuse to remind you:-
SUNDAY MAY 12th, St Paul's Church Gardens, Covent Garden. Mr. Punch awaits you.

[Richard Coombs]

Well it was a wonderful Mayfaye.

12th May 2019 was a gloriously sunny day in Covent Garden.
A brilliant turn out of Booths covering both sides of the garden.
The Guild book and puppet stall was there as well as many others also selling puppets and puppetry nick -nacks.

Bryan Clarke was on the church steps at 10am , as advertised , and was surrounded by dozens of friends both human and wooden. The wooden ones were all made by his own fair hands, and the hearts of the human friends were also touched by Bryan and his indomitable warmth and genius over the years.

A fitting way to celebrate Mr Punches 357th and Bryans 80th.