Punch-and-Judy Man

Tuesday, March 6th., Cadogan Square, London.

Serendipity. Just now and then a book falls into your hands which surprises and pleases you. Such is "Vagabonds and Puppets" by Walter Wilkinson. A slight and endearing volume to turn one's mind away from the mundanities of everyday existence. I liked it, and felt I would like the author. I found it very succulent. 

Walter Wilkinson and friends

Wilkinson is a puppeteer, and these are some of his reminiscences. I wouldn't be surprised to find he has more. I know a little about theatre, and when I think about it, Punch-and-Judy is theatre, and perhaps the best. For myself I would sooner watch Punch-and-Judy for a quarter of an hour for twopence than a West End drawing room comedy for two hours and a half for twelve shillings. It has one immense advantage. I can hear every word of the dialogue of Punch-and-Judy; of a drawing room comedy I catch merely a phrase or two here and there. Punch-and-Judy has other advantages - clear plots, swift action, satisfactory murders, farce as broad as the Mall, and a total absence of love scenes.

Wilkinson is a vagabond with the puppets which he made himself. He started off, short of fifteen shillings, in the garden city of Letchworth, and ended in a residential hotel, where his takings amounted to three pounds for a single performance. And what a romantic style of life. I envy him. He is a good sound writer, with a communicative 'sense' of the country, of roads, and of small towns. And he is vagabondishly cheerful, as becomes a Punch-and-Judy man. Though, for rest on a chilly night I prefer the roof of even a residential hotel to any star-studded firmament. Mr Wilkinson is different. he can perceive the humour of discomfort and hardship. I can't.