40 - Silently we’ll lift our eyes to the flying doves

August brings many visitors to the ancient streets of Gwair-on-Wye. Outside the shops, tables and stands are erected to tempt passers-by with quaint craft objects, sensational books and colourful foodstuffs. Whilst Dido Doolittle is arranging a row of lemon furred teddy bears with squinting eyes and herringbone pattern waistcoats, her rival Malvolio Claxendell, is polishing a 1937 Remington No 5 Portable Typewriter  which he hopes to sell for a fortune. It once belonged to the travel writer Freya Stark (and is thought to have been used to type the manuscript of A Winter in Arabia.)  Amidst the crowds, the unusual figure of Leporello Swinson is heading slowly towards the market-place.