While my Gibson guitar gently reaps…

SATURDAY was most enjoyable for any number of reasons. Raising money for a worthy cause, hearing my old Gibson Hummingbird gitfiddle singing its heart out once again, and generally soaking up the positive vibe playing in a small venue.

Yes, there were a few repeats, for even this ‘human jukebox’ has his limits. But the idea of playing requests by genre - rather than specific song title - seemed to work perfectly well.

I must admit to being a tad tired by the end of my seven-hour buskathon fund-raising session at Worcester’s Script Haven, but the level of support I received, plus the blood sugar booster of a chocolate bar soon revived me, even if those left-hand fingertips might have grown calluses on top of calluses.

So yes, when I fell fast asleep after a couple of goldfish bowl glasses of red watching Strictly, it was the deep slumber of the truly contented…

Emerging from my pit on Sunday morning and the first TV news story that greets ears and eyes is an item about how more children are now reading books.

I have to say that this comes as a bit of a surprise, as it’s so easy to think that social media and AI are now firmly in charge of everything in our lives.

But no. It seems that the ‘old money’ printed page still has a few aces up its sleeve notes, so praise be for that. Some good news at last. A flicker of light in the gloom.

But back to Saturday. I volunteered my services in aid of Script Haven because Leena Batchelor’s brainchild, that brightly coloured palace of varieties at the top of Worcester’s High Street, is a cause worth fighting for.

Because it’s much more than a bookshop. The premises also host poetry readings, book signings, talks and music sessions. Plus some of the best coffee this side of the Severn.

In fact, the sheer diversity of events held in a building associated with 19^th century author Charles Dickens makes Script Haven an oasis in which passers-by can slake their cultural thirst with a welcome draught in the shadow of the Elgar statue.

However, there’s a bit of a cash flow problem at the moment, and the shop’s many supporters are rallying round to help.

I’m just one of many people, many of whom – unlike me, currently basking in Facebook praise - are probably unsung, but are united in believing this enterprise must survive the present economic turmoil.

In a world where size is absolutely everything – from government to chain stores, from online materialism to the excess of the looming festive season, from the grotesque corporate gluttony of Glastonbury to stadium rock in general – Script Haven reminds us of how shopping and socialising once complemented each other.

A world in which things we used to take for granted now seem largely forgotten, lost in the noise of competing consumerism and the hubbub of the hard-sell.

Let's all hope that we've not forgotten the small enterprise with the personal touch. A person at the till, no supermarket-type checkout to robotomise one's bill. A warming cup of coffee while you browse. The hum of conversations as people actually talk to each other. Again.

Script Haven has every chance of celebrating its second anniversary with a little bit of help from its friends. For the alternative doesn’t bear thinking about… that of a world in which we're all the poorer should this shop ever become absent from Worcestershire’s cultural life.