GREAT news for West Malvern this week!

The village shop, which many believed had closed for the last time when Ron and Shelagh Mason put up the shutters at Easter, is to re-open under new management in about a month's time.

The new shopkeeper is Julie Ford, who comes from Cinderford in the Forest of Dean. She is looking forward to meeting her new customers and will welcome suggestions for goods and services people would like.

Many people, especially those without their own transport, have missed the shop over the summer and will be glad to see it re-open. Now it will be up to all residents to make sure it gets enough business to keep going: "Use it or Lose It", as the saying goes.

Those who were able to attend the John Betjeman Poetic Journey in Words and Music presented by Paul Vaughan, David Harrison and Raymond Fowler at St James's Church last Friday enjoyed a delightful occasion. Although well attended, numbers were probably affected by the fuel crisis - possibly to the relief of Valerie Blackbourn who had encountered some difficulties while buying food for the after-show supper.

The audience responded to the professionalism of Paul Vaughan, who kept going despite an irritating tickle in his throat (the result, he confided, of eating a digestive biscuit just before the performance). As well as presenting an affectionate portrait of the well-loved former Poet Laureate, he persuaded the audience to sing two of Betjeman's spoof "hymns".

One was a send-up of modern intensive farming "We plough the fields and scatter/ The poison on the land...", the other gently mocking a too-enthusiastic Victorian church restoration and ending with the couplet "Look up! And oh how glorious/He has restored the roof!" This was especially appropriate, as the proceeds of the event, for which the performers took no fees, raised over £600 for the St James's Church roof restoration appeal!