Chapter 14 - A new book is near completion!

 Work In Progress

'Nicholas'

In my last blog I was telling you about my problems with Amazon and the sales of 'Memories Of...' and I thought - to heck with it! I refuse to chase the tales of yet another set of algorithms ha! I got tired of changing things that I was doing to accommodate a computerised system and decided 

"Onward and upwards!"

So I moved onto as third book. This one directly follows on from my first this time, so probably should have done this before, but my characters just weren't speaking to me ha!

Nicholas had been sent to the family crypt in my first book in the series you may remember. His father was tried and condemned as his murderer. He wouldn't defend himself. He spoke to no one and that's where we pick up this next story...

I've called it just 'Nicholas' for now, but this will probably change when the book in published. I hope you'll keep an eye on my blogs as I'll keep you posted as to when it is set for releases, so 

'Watch This Space' 

If you've already read my earlier books don't forget to spread the word by writing a review on Amazon or wherever you bought your copy from. Here are some links to facilitate your review...

AMAZON Reviews - 

Joan put on a happy face

Memories Of...

Thank you for following my blogs and HAPPY READING!

Chapter 9 The Making of 'JOAN' - Bryan Cohen's Ad School Challenge

Bryan Cohen's Ad School Challenge

... nd every three months

Well here we are again. I thought I had it all in the bag and knew what I was doing and where I was going, but I couldn't have been further from the truth!

Sales of books, once friends and family had done their part, came to a standstill.  I was so fed up... I wanted to pack it all in. What do I do now? Where do I go? Who do I ask for help? 

I hadn't got money to waste and there's a lot of vultures out there just waiting for newbie indie authors to join their social media pages. Yes - many of those social media pages where authors are encouraged to join 'to meet and be able to interact with other authors' ha! They're a breeding ground for vultures. Gathering their prey into safe 'private groups' where they can find potential clients and DM them. Social media seemed a great idea until you realise that most of them aren't open to the public and let's face it, the public are the readers, not other authors, and certainly not the vultures marketing companies that swoop down onto their wannabe prey!

As you can tell, I got pretty disillusioned.

I watched video's, I sat through webinars that I'd heard of on social media sites, and they all gave just a little bit of good advice before swooping in with their sales pitch! Every time!

I tried doing amazon advertising. You have to place a 'bid' ie a price that you're prepared to pay per click and they vary for every 'keyword' you choose to use, and yes, I got burned... almost £100 later and no sales in two weeks I gave up! 

THEN a few months later, I saw Bryan Cohen's Amazon Ads Profit Challenge! My first reaction was 'oh yeah here we go again' but what had I to lose but my time? So I did the 2-week challenge. Followed through with the homework they set, watched the video's they suggested I watched and... no change! Not within those first two weeks.

Bryan Cohen does these profit challenges every three months. Authors at any stage of their career, solitary books, multiple books any size of authorship are all welcome and for two whole weeks they can ask Bryan's team ANY QUESTION THEY WANT! And the offer is genuine! I thought WOW! This is a rareness in itself!

I joined in the next time. There had been a nibble or two since the previous time and, because his  method of bidding for ad space is not to throw money at ads, but to take the zen lemur approach and take it slowly, I was able to afford to advertise for longer. People were getting to see my book on the amazon book shelves at least - that was a good step in the right direction. What's the point of writing a book then sticking it on a shelf and not showing it to readers? My book was at least getting seen and we all know how advertising works... people see something often enough, they wonder what it's all about and eventually they want to give it a try! 

Ad School sounded interesting. The support offered sounded interesting, but I couldn't afford it.  But they still invite you to join them again the next time and they will still give their advice totally free for two weeks every three months... you can't argue with that!

As it turned out, I won a place with ad school... Me? I never win anything! I couldn't believe it! I've been with them ever since and it's not plain sailing I have to admit, but their support, their advice... I'm glad they're there.  I'll keep you informed of when I become a famous author, but in the meantime, it's on with writing my next book.

Joan-put on a happy face is the first of a series - so watch this space :-)

Joan: Put on a Happy face (a fascinating tale of history and fiction) eBook : Mottershead, Carol M: Amazon.co.uk: Kindle Store

If you want to ask questions or just keep in touch email me at carol.m.mottershead@gmail.com

Happy reading!

Chapter 8 The Making of 'Joan' - Marketing my book

Marketing my book 

When you've published your book with Kindle Direct Publishing the next thing they expect you to do is advertise on the Amazon sites. The initial sales page set up is like their publishing - totally free until you get a sale. Even then, I think they're pretty reasonable giving the author 60% royalties less print costs for paperback and hardcover and 70% on eBooks - wow! Compared to traditional publishing and vanity publishing, they're great.

Unfortunately, marketing of a book is the hardest part of all! With traditional publishers they do all the marketing for you, the hard work, the social media, the emails, all done by themselves - at a cost of course! Nothing is totally free when marketing.

It's all well and good publishing a book and putting it on the shop floor ie in this instance the Amazon sales page, but that doesn't make people pick it out of the millions of other books and buy a copy. A sad fact indeed. That's where the cost comes into it. 

Amazon will have you paying the highest prices for bids on advertising your book, believe me, I tried it their way and lost a lot of money (well a lot of money to me lol!)

Bryan Cohen's Ads Profit Challenge was like a breath of fresh air. He showed me how to spend less to be able to advertise more until the sales started to come in. 'The Profit Challenge' is exactly that - a challenge!

For me, the only sales still seemed to be from word of mouth and eventually mouths stop spreading the word lol! I didn't know what was wrong with my book. Why didn't anyone want to buy a copy to read?

Bryan Cohen's Ad School helped me identify where the problems could lie... The first port of call was getting the correct genres - a nightmare for me, it felt, because my book covers so many tropes.

Tropes are storylines for example, in 'Joan put on a happy face' you have tropes such as:

A young girl loses her mother at an impressionable age

A young girl marries an older man, a vagrant, an actor, against her fathers wishes.

A young wife and mother battles with post-natal depression while her husband works all the time.

A young mother uses play therapy to help her young son express himself

A young girl with poor self esteem fights her way into the world of adults, becomes an a travelling performer and a learns to become forceful woman, a woman to reckon with

A wife whose husband turns to drink and drugs and becomes lazy and irresponsible

A wife who is struck by her husband and left to die in hospital, taking their son with him.

A husband who kills his best friend and suffers with depression bordering on madness out of guilt

A husband who suffers post traumatic stress after leading his troupe of actors through wars and death as an immortal who wants to but cannot die!

The tropes go on... I had to start somewhere.

After that, they taught me how to look for other reasons for lack of sales and we looked at my book cover to begin with. This...

eventually became this...

Which do you like best? Let me know in the comments...

In the meantime, til next time, here's another link to the paperback

'Joan - put on a happy face' by Carol M Mottershead

Happy Reading!

Biographical Historical Fiction: Why should I read it?

Biographical Historical Fiction - Why should I read it?

If you're looking for a genre that combines history with a fascinating story, look no further than biographical historical fiction!

This genre offers readers a chance to immerse themselves in another time period and learn about real people who lived through incredible events.

Here are just a few of the many reasons to love biographical historical fiction:

-You'll gain a new perspective on history

-You'll be inspired by the stories of real people

-You'll learn about different cultures and time periods

-You'll be transported to another time and place

So if you're looking for a genre that's both educational and entertaining, make sure to check out biographical historical fiction!

Check out 'Joan: put on a happy face' by Carol M Mottershead out in paperback now

Joan: Put on a Happy face: Amazon.co.uk: Mottershead, Carol M: 9798683476625: Books

Chapter 7 The Making of JOAN - So you think it's all over?

So you think it's all over?

So you think it's all over? My Journey Into Authorship has been a fascinating journey so far, I've found it really enjoyable. I never liked history at school, so suddenly finding it interesting was a major surprise! I had thought my work was done, my journey was over, but it was in fact, just the beginning... The next stage was marketing, or the business side of being an author. Marketing Like a lot of people I thought writing my story, turning it into a book, was all it would take - people would buy it -right? No! Friends and family could support me in my efforts. They'd read and write reviews wouldn't they? I'd only have to ask - or so I thought. Unfortunately, family and friends can only support so far. Then comes the time when everyone you know has been exhausted, you need new blood, it's time to reach out to a bigger market. 'Joan - Put on a happy face' is available on over seventeen Amazon sites worldwide alone! Some are under control of Amazon USA and others... I've yet to find out, even now, two years later. My next step was to sign into their kindle select. Amazon sell thousands of kindle device every year. Many of whom have subscriptions to the kindle library of which Amazon has the largest eBook library 'in the world!' WOW! Millions of books worldwide and my book is one of them... it's exciting! I thought I've made it! Unfortunately, being on a shelf doesn't mean anyone will pick it out of millions on offer to read it. I had to think of other ways... Next I decided to try to get my book into local libraries. There was a hitch. I had to join what Kindle Direct Publishing called their 'expanded distribution'. It doesn't cost me anything up front to join their expanded distribution but if any sales come through those points of contact I lose an extra 20% of my royalties but hey, it's worth it if they're doing the work for me and spreading the word - right?

Libraries and shops outside of Amazon shop won't stock books by indie authors. They feel that they're helping the competition. However, Carol does not like to be beaten, there had to be a way round it, and there was. Expanded distribution costs an additional 20% of royalties so instead of 60% and print costs, I get 40% and print costs, which applies to all sales created through ED, not sales on Amazon. KDP sent the details of my book onto their customers shopping lists, the customer, like any other, then had to choose to buy or sell my book; I'm still waiting for that magical day to happen, but I keep hoping, I keep the faith lol! Always looking for ways to get my book read I decided to try local libraries. I thought get copies to the British Library and it would make my book available to all local libraries in the UK! YAYY! No! There are six book depositories in the UK: British, Irish, Welsh, Scottish plus Cambridge and Oxford Libraries, they were all sent and accepted copies of 'Joan-put on a happy face', I thought I'd cracked it, only to find out that the book could only be read on their premises and was never let out to lending libraries! Marketing was becoming frustrating now. I was spending more time marketing than I was writing and I felt like I was batting my head against a brick wall! I sat through a webinar with some local librarians to find out what the craic was. I heard that they don't have the budgets any more to buy new books especially books from unknown indie authors that might sit on shelves unread, so I asked the obvious 'can I donate my book to libraries to be used around the UK?' I thought there'd be only one head office and that would be it - No! Why would they make it that easy? Aarrghh! I was told I would have to write to each individual central library, they'd review the book if I sent them a copy, then decide if they should purchase them for the rest of the library. I wrote to quite a few central libraries, luckily this time most of them do have emails, but not all of them answered.

Persistence reaps its own rewards My book is now held in Thornaby and Middlesbrough Library and Brent Library, others are awaiting orders to be filled. My book is also available as an eBook, Paperback or Hardcover on #Amazon or at Blackwells Waterstones or any good online bookstore.

For budding authors I would just like to say

'Don't give up on your dream!'

Happy reading!

Part 6 The Making of JOAN - The book is writ - now what's to do?

I had written my story, a story I had never in my wildest dreams even think of writing. I'd been driven to put these words on paper night after night like some possessed but now what was I going to do with it?

Send personal manuscripts to any friend or family members who would agree to read it? Did that. Some criticisms were helpful, so were not, but after four times of doing this process of writing and re-writing I was finally happy with the final version. Checked for story content, grammar and finally editing my book was ready to send out to literary agents.

KDP Publishing was not my first choice for publishing my book. I'd already decided that vanity publishing for me was a definite non-starter 'if I can't get someone to believe in my story enough to invest time and money into it, then I wasn't going to pay someone to feed my ego, I didn't want to just be writing for no one to read but myself, friends and family, my book has a story to tell, a message to the world and I want it to be read by many.'

'I want to do it properly' I thought. Find myself a literary agent who would do all the hard work for me;  finding a suitable traditional publisher who was as enthusiastic about my story as I was, someone who could see the potential that I saw in it, and could take on the role of marketing, and yes... pay me for the honour! I am now able to appreciate just how hard marketing a book can be in today's market, with so many people writing books the competition is overwhelming!  How do readers choose a new book to read? What are they looking for? What are their search criteria? I was at a loss! 

After emailing several literary agents, sending them a synopsis of  my story, an elevator pitch aimed to enthuse someone about your book in a few short minutes and the first three chapters then waiting weeks and weeks for a reply only, in the nicest possible way, to be rejected, I finally gave in. 

A fellow author Comedian Lester Crabtree told me about him writing a book during lockdown about the Real Life of a Comedian 'Born To Die' he called it; he introduced me to KDP Publishing, the modern method of publishing your book widely used today.  I was sceptical, but I was prepared to look into what they had to offer... Professionally published book available as an eBook, Audio Book and Paperback all to your own specifications, but under advisement of themselves and best of all NO UPFRONT COSTS TO THE AUTHOR KDP only get paid when a book is sold! 

 'Joan - Put On A Happy Face' by Carol M Mottershead 

was published Sept 2020 with the help of KDP / Amazon. 

I really was unsure about publishing independently. I'd heard some negative stories about doing it yourself, that they were a waste of time, royalties were poor, which at 70% on eBook and 60% less print costs on paperback I don't think that's a bad deal myself! No upfront costs was a definite bonus too! Traditional publishers don't ask upfront costs, if anything they pay you to publish your book and recoup their money from future sales - they take the risks! Vanity publishing was one way I was 'definitely not' going to use - so KDP Publishing it was...

Personally I've found the KDP publishing to be a great help, and they will support you throughout the process of publishing without charging I might add! 

Like many people, I was scared of the technology in case I pressed the wrong buttons! But KDP were supportive... and very quick to reply to my enquiries. Marketing options are available... free promo's or  countdown deals and of course click to view, which personally I don't like the idea but have yet to try it... maybe! 

I'd recommend KDP Publishing to anyone who has written a book and not found a traditional publisher, but not vanity publishing... only my personal choice though. :-)

Having said all that, I do recommend that you check and recheck your writing, or have edited by a professional if grammar, spelling and punctuation aren't your forte lol! To produce a published book that has loads of errors gives independently published books a bad name of being sloppy or of poor quality which will prevent potential buyers from taking a chance on purchasing books of other independent authors, which isn't fair on the rest of us who HAVE bothered to check our work!

I am now a published author! 

And there is no better feeling than the day you see your first book in print! 

It's marvellous!

You can take a 'look inside' courtesy of Amazon or have a read of my author page... 

Whichever you decide - HAPPY READING

And remember what Joan says 'Put on a Happy Face' - KEEP SMILING :-) 

ISBN-13 : 979-8683476625

Joan: Put on a Happy face eBook: Mottershead, Carol M: Amazon.co.uk: Kindle Store

Part 5 The Making of JOAN - Real life events that fit the characters in Punch & Judy

Real life events that fit the characters in Punch & Judy

Armed with my characters and my theme, I now have to fill in the missing pieces. I need to find a way to bring each of her puppets to life, to establish who they were and their relationship to Joan. How do they fit into her story? But more importantly, how do I keep the whole story fitting the theme of Joan’s puppet show, the one we now know as Punch and Judy?

It's been quite a challenge to cover 450 years of history in this timeline, especially since Joan is still alive today. We've tried to be as historically accurate as possible, since this is her 'biography' and she lived through all of these events. Hopefully we've done her justice! When I think of Joan, I can't help but imagine her living in the Lake District with all her family around her!

I had to find a suitable date of birth for her based on her experience of Commedia dell arte. It's clear that she was very familiar with the art form, so she must have seen it performed live, maybe even in her home town of Rome. I consulted a few sources and found that the first recorded mention of Commedia dell arte was in 1545. From there, I was able to track back and determine that she would have been around 20 years old when she first saw it performed. This means that she would have been married young by Italian standards.

In medieval Europe, the average age for marriage was around 21 for men and 18 for women. However, it was not unusual for men to marry earlier or later than this, depending on their social class and circumstances. For example, nobles and other high-ranking men often married younger women in order to produce heirs as quickly as possible. Meanwhile, commoners and other lower-ranking men often had to wait longer to marry because they needed to save up enough money to support a family. The acceptable age difference between a medieval man and his wife varied depending on the man's social class. For example, nobles were expected to marry women from other noble families, who were usually around the same age. However, commoners had more freedom in choosing a wife, and it was not unusual for a commoner to marry a woman who was a few years older or younger than him.

As it turned out for me, this story almost wrote itself. All the characters I needed to develop and the situations I needed for Joan to experience seemed to fall into place. The research I did for this story could fill an entire book, but I only want to share a taste of it in the hope that you will enjoy the story as much as I enjoyed researching it!

A medieval wedding: It was delightful to research medieval weddings, which uncovered some interesting aspects beyond finding wonderful designs for the bride's wedding dress and groom's outfit. For example, the couple were officially married outside the doors of the chapel before being allowed inside for the nuptial mass. This is contrast to a Protestant mass, where everyone in the congregation is given the body and blood of Christ for communion, whereas Catholics are only given the body of Christ, except in the case of a nuptial mass.

 Another fact that I discovered is that on the wedding night, a medieval wife would not wear a nightgown but present herself naked before her husband. I ignored this fact for the sake of my story and called it authors prerogative.

A wife’s place in society through the ages: Wives were considered no better than chattel, in fact for a long time, they were had less value than chattel! How women have been perceived in society has been quite disturbing over the centuries anything from being beaten once a week to keep her in place to taking all her worldly goods as her husbands, with no rights over land, money or even her own children until the nineteenth / twentieth century.

Child birth:  

Medieval Mothers were not meant to be seen in their final days / weeks before baby is born. They had to 'prepare' for the birth with religious amulets, tokens, prayers, asking for forgiveness for their sins all in order to have a safe delivery [confessing sins to a priest also prepared them to be free from sin should they die in childbirth too! All very sinister when you think of it] This horrific looking cutter was used to cut through pelvic bone if the baby was stuck in childbirth, saving the child was more important than saving the mother for a long time even up until the  twentieth century in some cultures.

When it came to finding how to fit the crocodile into the story... well... that was an interesting one for I discovered the reason Mr Punch traditionally calls the crocodile a 'kitty, kitty'. Crocodiles or cocodrillo's,  make a purring sound when warning people off.  To someone who had never seen a crocodile before, hearing the purring sound would be like hearing the purr of a cat, and Pulcinella or Mr Punch would have been no different!

For even further research, I wondered how Joan and her family would feel when they found out they were immortal... I decided to ask the public. Using social media this time, I asked the questions:

Would you choose to be immortal if offered a potion for life eternal? 

-Only one third of people said they would, which surprised me. I'd thought that if someone discovered an elixir for immortality that everyone would want it! 

Then when told that the potion could be taken by their whole family 

-a further fifty percent said they would consider it, not definitely, but they'd consider it. 

So immortality wasn't as popular as you'd think! 

That brought me to wondering how Joan, Pulcinella and their baby would handle finding out they would never die, they would never meet their maker, they would never find peace? You'll have to read the story for what happened I'm afraid though, haha!

So what is the story about?

Joan and her family became immortal after taking a potion intended only to heal, from their family friend John Dee; but there's more than friendship binding John to her family, a secret she has yet to uncover.

JOAN - Put on a Happy Face is the first of a trilogy meant to whet your appetite for what is to come...

Available as eBook on Amazon

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08HKQDQDS

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08HKQDQDS

Part 4 The Making of JOAN - Researching Nicholas Flamel

Researching Nicholas Flamel 

History was now getting very interesting.  Nicholas Flamel and his wife Perenelle lived in the early part of the 14^th Century which was filled with rumours of magic, stories that legends are made of, and Nicholas was an alchemist, a scientist, an educated man. He owned his own bookshop and was a scrivener to all. Despite being a strongly religious man he was attributed with discovering how to turn lead into gold. 

Years later he, more than his wife, was said to have discovered the secret of immortality, a blasphemous accusation for any religious person. He was simply an alchemist, a man of science, a scrivener and bookshop owner living a simple life, giving whatever he could to those less fortunate than himself. 

He and his wife created sanctuary for the homeless, a refuge in Paris that still stands today in the form of a Restaurant. They did so much for others that their memory has been immortalised for centuries – despite being given the accolade for his discoveries, none of it has been proven, but then what is this we now find...?

Part of my research uncovered a treasure of a find - an Elixir for Longer Life! 

Is this what people have been considering as the elixir for immortality? During medieval times it would have been normal to live for forty maybe fifty years on average, it could be seen therefore, anyone living beyond those years, when the rest of their family or friends were dead, could be considered immortal!

The discovery I found is called Chartreuse: Elixir de Vegetal and consists of 130 flowers, plants and herbs distilled in alcohol and is produced by the Carthusian Monks using a closely guarded secret recipe that dates back over 400 years. It is said to have been prescribed by French doctors until recent years as an actual medicine as a potent medicinal liqueur.

The elixir should be consumed in tiny quantities. Only a couple of drops are needed

* in a cup of hot water, Lemon and Honey,

* in a tisane,

* as a "bitter" to add strength and flavour to cocktails, 

* on a sugar cube.

Known as an "Elixir of long life" the Elixir Vegetal is believed to have health giving properties and can be taken to:

* ease Digestion,

* cure tiredness, sickness and discomfort,

* restores a sense of  wellbeing and vitality.

The Elixir Vegetal needs to be stored in its own protective wooden case, away from the light, to keep it in perfect condition.

Additionally, which I think adds to its mystery, is the fact that only three monks ever know the recipe at any one time. Two know only half the recipe each whilst the third knows when and how to bring them together for storing in the wooden barrels in the cellar of their monastery.

For more modern day use the Elixir has been developed into a slightly lower volume alcoholic liqueur sold as its natural colour of green or with honey where it turns into a yellow coloured liqueur suitable for the more popular cocktail / wine bars of present day.

Out of curiosity, I bought a bottle of the Elixir de Vegetal and took some.  Strangely enough, within three weeks of starting the three drops a day on a sugar lump, my platelets, which had been low for five years and needed monitoring every three months, returned to normal... go figure... FASCINATING!! J

 Chartreuse: Elixir de Vegetal is available on Amazon Prime

Part 3 The Making of JOAN - Researching Punch & Judy Shows

Researching Punch & Judy Shows

It is interesting to see the variations of the same puppet show. Though there are hundreds of puppeteers performing Punch and Judy all over the world, they are all different yet someone, in essence, the same. It is amazing to see how one show can be interpreted in so many ways and still maintain its originality.

Punch and Judy was based on Commedia dell arte, so I decided to keep researching the history of the theatre-style. I found that each show was different, because there was no script to follow. The performers would improvise around a theme or topic, often making it comedic and lewd. This was totally politically incorrect by today's standards! The performers would flaunt authority and mock nobility.

Finding out about Joan was fascinating to me, considering I never had an interest in history before. It was exciting to be learning something new that I was actually interested in. 

My story looks at the story of Punch and Judy from the perspective of Joan herself. She'd be outraged by the way society today perceives her shows; Joan's shows are about her family and friends, her loved ones! Why are they so much against her? More to the point how could she be outraged today, if she was over 450 years of age?

She would have had to have been born long before Samuel Pepys even wrote about Punch and Judy on May 9th, 1662. My eldest son posed the question: how could this come about?

Is she an old retired puppeteer who has lost her mind? Has the puppeteer got dementia and believes herself  to be Judy? Is it that she's a schizophrenic who has become obsessed that she is Judy? NO! I didn’t want MY Joan to be a sick old lady. She had to be strong, confident, resilient... a survivor of all that life has thrown at her over the years! She would be the one to tell her own story.

It was while pondering the dilemma that my eldest son set for me that my youngest son asked if I'd heard about Nicholas Flamel and the elixir of immortality? Like many, I'd only heard of him through the Harry Potter books by JK Rowling, but apparently he had been a real person. So from researching Punch and Judy shows, to Commedia dell arte I was now off on a new line of research, that of Nicholas Flamel. According to my son, Nicholas Flamel was a French philanthropist, who donated much of his wealth to hospitals and charities. He also happened to be an alchemist who discovered the Philosopher’s Stone, which supposedly could turn any metal into gold. And as if that wasn’t enough, he was also said to have found the elixir of immortality. Now I was really interested!

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08HKQDQDS

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08HKQDQDS

Part 2 The Making of JOAN - No two performances are alike

No two performances are alike

The retired puppeteer Pat seemed perfect for what I needed- a local female Punch and Judy performer with the right voice. I approached her and explained the story I was writing in my mind. After outlining it to her, she told me that what I was about to write would be very powerful stuff.

Was I prepared to be questioned about my experience with Punch and Judy? I wasn't! I hadn't seen many Punch and Judy shows. I knew, like most people, that they were all different because the script itself is never written down for anyone to repeat. Traditionally, Punch and Judy are like their counterpart Commedia dell Arte whose plays change with the times and the political views. They carry "the news" to their audiences everywhere they go. And so does Punch and Judy.

Puppeteers have been using similar characters for centuries, dating back to Commedia dell'arte. When Mad Cow disease was in the news, Professor Brian made the statement on his show that Mr. Punch wouldn't eat beef sausages. This made front page news for him locally. However, after researching lots of different stories from various puppeteers, I discovered that they all had the same stock characters.

Mr. Punch, Judy, and Baby, of course, plus Scaramouche and his little dog Toby, who for many years would be a real dog, a black puppet who loved to sing and dance, a clown, a devil, a doctor and an executioner or hangman, plus a policeman or equivalent through the ages representing authority figure – Oh yes, and not forgetting the crocodile. Everyone else depended on the latest news or celebrity.

I searched for a long time to see a full show online without any success until I came across one in Adelaide Australia ‘Prestons Historic Punch and Judy’

Part 1 https://youtu.be/a-yPfrcS2Zo

Part 2 https://youtu.be/NsTbFHlgcMA

Part 3 https://youtu.be/QuHtWIss5bY

Part 1 The Making of JOAN: put on a happy face - The TV Interview on GMB

The TV Interview on Good Morning Britain 28th July 2018 

(The beginning of the rest of my life...)

It was 28th July 2018 and I was watching a TV interview on Good Morning Britain that had one of my entertainers (Professor Brian Llewellyn) being interviewed about his puppet show Punch & Judy. One of the guests (Tricia Goddard) was making an issue about the domestic violence aspect of the show asking if the Professor had considered changing the storyline to accommodate present day attitudes and do a Punch and Judy show without the violence.

As an entertainer myself, I know how important it is to keep up with the times and make sure that our shows reflect the values of today's society. However, I also believe that there is a place for traditional entertainment like Punch and Judy. Violence is a part of the human experience, and I don't think we should shy away from that in our art. What do you think?

Good Morning Britain interviews Professor Brian Llewellyn