As you all know, I am an entertainment agent first and an author second. My journey into authorship didn't start til 2018 after watching an interview on Good Morning Britain between Kate Garraway and Professor Brian Llewellyn, a Punch & Judy professor in North East England, and one of the first entertainers I worked with.
They were meant to be interviewing him regarding his Punch & Judy Shows; they'd been booked well in advance but were suddenly being cancelled by schools and local authorities. He'd been invited onto the show to discuss the censorship.
Unfortunately, presenter Kate Garraway and her guest Tricia Goddard, turned out to have their own agendas; his show was being accused of promulgating domestic violence and racism! Tricia, the guest on the show, asked if he’d consider changing the show to leave out the violence… he refused. "I don't see what the problem is, they're only blocks of wood!" he announced in frustration.
ONLY BLOCKS OF WOOD! ONLY BLOCKS OF WOOD!
The phrase resounded in my head for days. Initially outraged by the cancellation of shows, I wrote a 3-page rant to send to the press complaining about the censorship. Didn’t they know that censorship was illegal?
Realising a 3-page rant wouldn't grab the attention of the press, I decided to make a video instead; The puppet Judy, was to be silhouetted interview style, with backlighting, deliberately sideways on to show the well-known shape of Judy’s curved nose.
I took the image of a well-known local TV news presenter, Pam Royle for the interviewer and asked local puppeteer Pat Hogg of Pat’s Puppets if she would be the voice of Judy in my video...
"Do you think you have all the answers if the press decide to hound you like they did Brian?" she asked - I hadn't!
Video of Interview with Judy with special thanks to Pam Royle
That day was the start many weeks of sleepless nights as I started my research, during which time Judy's story came to life. I discovered that historians had come up with their solution to Mr Punch's behaviour... there were books on why he behaved the way he did, why he was hunch-backed, and plays written... all about Mr Punch, but no one had seen the story from the perspective of Judy. She had something she wanted to say - and I was listening!
I had to write her story! For the next two years I had little sleep as I researched the history of Punch &Judy. Every show was different. Since there was no real script for Punch & Judy it meant that even every show by the same professor was also different, no two shows were identical, although organisation's such as the Punch & Judy Foundation are now trying to create scripts for those who want to use them.
Punch & Judy is made up of a selection of stock characters, but each show had its own variation. Professor Brian, at one time, had Mr Punch refusing to eat beef sausages because he was afraid he'd get mad cow disease! Ha! It was through my research that I discovered that Judy was actually originally called Joan, or Dame Joan to be precise. She was of noble birth, but who’d have thought it?
The result of the research is 'Joan: Put on a Happy Face' Book One in the trilogy 'The Elixir Chronicles' First published 10th September 2020 with Book Two 'Ships in the Night' to be published four years later on 10th September 2024.
That doesn't mean I was idle for four years for one of the characters in Book One, her adopted son John pushed through with his own story 'Memories Of...' published on 6th April 20232
I hope you enjoy reading my efforts all are available in paperback at all good online bookstores, even in local and national libraries in UK - Happy reading!
Author-Carol M Mottershead
