I’m not sure if it’s really a new shop as such, since it may be one that’s been lurking for a while in the wings, waiting to be brought on by the set crew. I think there are more sets stored back-stage, more characters in the green room, than I’ve had room for on the stage so far.
This is a craft and gift shop – the kind of place you only go into if you’re looking for a birthday present for someone really difficult to buy for, or if it’s attached to a sweet little café with excellent home-made cakes. I can picture it now – people with rucksacks would be well advised to take care in case they sweep away whole shelf-fuls of twiddly little china things while turning round to speak to someone, or to look at the luridly coloured hand-made candles at the other side of the badly-designed stairwell.
Sometimes local artists will try and sell their watercolours in this kind of shop, in which case they are usually priced much too high for the market, almost as if they aren’t meant to be sold at all but just displayed for years, fading and gathering dust as the shop owners often do. Really enterprising artists will of course produce greetings cards depicting local scenes too.
I can’t really find fault with this kind of shop. Sometimes, among the bird models and hand-painted lumpy bowls, you can find a cat pendant to give a friend for Christmas, or an unusual elephant to add to your own collection!
Cecilia Peartree - woman of mystery 