' Adventures with my Puppets among West Country Villages'
By the Puppet Maker
Puppets naturalised themselves in England after their introduction from Italy before the days of the Tudors, and flourished until the eighteenth century. Like many other charming things, they fell out of favour, with the one exception of ' Punch and Judy', until recent years has seen a revival of interest in them.
Here is a puppet maker whose puppets perform throughout the West Country. Among their repertoire is the old mumming play of ' St. George and the Turkish Knight', a variant of which will be presented in Gloucestershire dialect.