Tag Archives: Chris South

Happy New Year – Grunty Fencast Number 13

Dear Fencast friends,

Happy New Year, and here’s to you, one and all.

We thought you might like to spice up your new year by listening to a Dennis episode, and so we now bring you Grunty Fencast number 13!

And not only do we bring you a free episode, but we’d like to give you a reminder of our latest release – Archive Editions 18, which finishes off our trawl through 1993’s episodes

Once more, Mr South does his dogged best to get sense out of Dennis (which he does, in a way – just not in a way that might be considered normal. You’d think he’d be used to it by now.)

Their conversation is wide-ranging, as usual. Dennis talks about Maudie’s vitality, and Mr South calls something grotesque. Dennis has the best afternoon, which could be because Mrs Jeffreys was furious. Our hero has a visitation, tries to get to the bottom of George Robinson’s tales of fairies and then has to make a Mary. After all that, he explains why he had to look and listen through the hole.

Be warned, Archives 18 contains a wide variety of things, such as treacherous lino, Butterkist, a little shed with curtains, General MacArthur, rinsing tinsel, riffs, the presidential chair, the isolation hospital, smiting and begatting, a len, Mrs Sturgess’s Iris, the parallels, a sluice, a culvert, beet, Thawpit, the goldfish, a man with teeth, religious smoking, a mangle, a demon singler, looming nostrils, an exceeding high place, the Festival of Britain and pigeon droppings.

Please click here or go over to the Albums section of the shop to get your copy, either as a CD or download.

And finally, here’s your free episode for the New Year. Just make sure you’re not all of a doo-dah before you listen, because Dennis is exactly that. And it’s all to do with the telephone kossak outside the Post Office. Click here to start listening.

Happy New Year, everyone.

TAIYL

Miss Edwards

Who’s Who? BARRY “BARMY” BARNARD, The Rev.

I forget my own name sometimes but I never could forget Reverend Barnard. He was quite a character in his day. Here is a brief extract from Who’s Who of Grunty Fen.

According to Barnard’s new calendar, by which many Fen folk now live, the standard week runs Sunday, Unday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday.

Picture of BARRY “BARMY” BARNARD, The Rev.
Who’s Who? BARRY “BARMY” BARNARD, The Rev.

By some force of nature, we are unable to remember the events of an Unday.  Mankind lives and goes about its business on Undays but is forbidden forever from remembering what it did on that day.  That slice of cold pie missing from the larder sometime between Sunday and Monday was eaten on Unday. That otherwise inexplicable graze on one’s skin was suffered on an Unday.  That stranger towards whom one feels an unjustified antipathy is because of something he or she said on an Unday. That strange sense of sadness or gladness we sometimes feel for no good reason springs in fact from the events of Unday.  All strangenesses, all mysteries, all odd dreams and curious happenings, and, above all, that impression one has of having “been here before” are down to Unday.

It goes without saying that you can read more about the thoughts of the Reverend Barnard in the book written by Christopher South called Who’s Who of Grunty Fen.

Best regards

Miss Edwards, Grunty Fen PO and General Store

 

The original travelling salesmen

Hello there. Many people think that the Grunty Fen General Stores have been here for ever! But before my sister and I took over the little post office Grunty Fen was visited by characters such as this gentleman who would deliver and sell all matters of comestibles.  Everything from cement to elastic for under-clothing. Just you read the chapter on Old Rep in Christopher South’s latest book.

I learn something new every time I pick it up!

 

Best of Dennis Volume 5 is reissued

Hello,

The cassette version of volume 5 featured Dennis with one of his rude root pictures.

We are all very pleased at Grunty Fen to hear that Dennis’s shop is now able to supply the Best Of Dennis Vol 5 on CD or a digital download. This is a collection of Dennis episodes originally released on cassette tapes.

To quote Mr South “This compilation features a wide variety of subjects involving mince, custard and gravy, army life, tortoises, the mysterious spirituality of the hadnabinfers, strange offerings in supermarkets, Gran’s bloomers, budgie cages and the light harvest festival. ”

Dennis spoke  on several occasions about the hadnabinfer problem but I’m no closer to an understanding. Listen to Volume 5 yourself and then perhaps you can explain it to me.

Volume 5 is only available from Dennis’s shop in this location.

Fond regards

Miss Edwards

Where to buy Customs and Folklore of Grunty Fen?

Hello everybody,

Mr South has been busy visiting shops and adding more locations from where his books may be purchased. Here is his little list:

Ely :
Burrows bookshop
Toppings

Cambridge:
David’s
Heffer’s

Saffron Walden:
The Tourist Information Centre
Harts Books

St Ives (Cambridgeshire):
Just Cards and Thornton’s

Great Shelford:
Scotsdales Garden Centre

Soham:
Soham Books

And of course you can buy direct from Dennis’ shop:

http://dennisofgruntyfen.co.uk/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1&products_id=186

Or if you don’t mind paying the extra postage you can get it from Amazon:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Customs-Folklore-Grunty-Fen/dp/0993013023/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1509621839&sr=1-3&keywords=grunty+fen

So exciting!

 

It’s here! The new Grunty Fen Book!

Grunty Fennery and Mr South are delighted to announce that :

The Customs and Folklore of Grunty Fen

Customs and Folklore of Grunty Fen covers

is now available. This is the third book in the series written by Christopher South and is even more enjoyable than the previous two.

The nice young person, Annabel, at Burrows bookshop in Ely was the first to stock Customs closely followed by Toppings.  In Cambridge that lovely little bookshop, David’s, is your shop to visit for a copy.

Meanwhile, those lucky people that live in lovely Saffron Walden will be able to buy Customs locally; both the Tourist Information Centre and Harts Books now have stock.

And of course you can buy direct from Dennis’ shop:

http://dennisofgruntyfen.co.uk/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1&products_id=186

Or if you don’t mind paying the extra postage you can get it from Amazon:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Customs-Folklore-Grunty-Fen/dp/0993013023/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1509621839&sr=1-3&keywords=grunty+fen

Thrilling isn’t it?

Best wishes

Miss Edwards
Grunty Fen Post Office and General Stores