Today I found myself at the Village at War event held beside the canal at Stoke Bruerne of Canal Museum fame and a dam pretty village. My wife is in Lybia for a week lecturing on Business subjects, so not relishing talking to myself all day long, the joyous spectacle of the event somehow was irresistible.

Not much to say about the event that my photos below can’t describe better.

Except two very nice guys I talked to…..

First up was C&RT Volunteer Jon Bennett running a stall to try and recruit Friends of the C&RT who will then become regular suppliers of donations to the Trust. As this is largely not a canal event –  just using the canal and village as a setting – the crowd was not a source of ready made canal enthusiasts. So, Jon’s task was pretty difficult. But, he was obviously working pretty hard to enrol those people who did stop at his stall and was achieving a certain success in sign ups I understand – not easy to get people to commit to making a regular monthly subscription. Well done Jon! He is pictured at his stall below. How can he fail with such a smile!

Click on any image for a larger view.

C&RT Volunteer Jon Bennett

Then I ran into popular canal author Geoffrey Lewis, someone I had met twice before at the Braunston fetival. Geoffrey is cursed with the same Christian name as me (which unfortunately acuurately discloses our birth era on the time space continuum!), although I have shortened mine to Geoff….much cooler don’t I think.

Geoffrey, of course, had the same obstacle as Jon in trying to sell to largely non-canal enthusiasts. But, he seemed happy with his sales. His latest book is Cattle & Sheep & Boats and the cover is shown below along with his engaging smile overcoming the veil of  his beard, specs. and trilby.

Author Geoffrey Lewis

His latest novel

Can Jon and Geoffrey please email me to say they have seen this post! It would make my day!

Below is a gallery of photos of the characters of the day parading around the super canal setting.