There’s nothing quite like the thrill of completing a project and preparing to launch it into the world! It’s even more exciting when the work is a long-cherished dream that’s been in the making for many years.
The idea for Threepence on the Carpet began during my childhood, while watching a puppet show at the beach during a seaside holiday. While the other children roared with laughter at Punch and Judy’s wild antics, I was captivated by the puppeteer’s flamboyant facade. After the show, when he emerged from the puppet booth to take his bow, he invariably had tears streaming down his face. Who was this mercurial character? Why did he look so sad when he put the puppets away? What was he like when he wasn’t performing?
My imagination ran wild, and I imagined the puppeteer as a musician, down on his luck and trying to scrape a living from entertaining the children. This germ of an idea would eventually grow into the long-awaited project.
Writing Threepence on the Carpet has been an absolute blast, especially reliving my childhood memories of the swinging sixties. The Aldermaston marches, the ‘Ban the Bomb’ movement, the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, the scandals, The Beatles—this was the decade that shook Britain and the rest of the world.
With the final round of copy editing complete, I can’t wait to share Tommy’s extraordinary journey with my readers!
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