MADAM - I am writing to you to say how marvellous the production of Keep the Home Fires Burning was at the Subscription Rooms on Friday, October 24.

If you missed it, then you can see it at the Rodborough Tabernacle on Friday, November 15, but my primary reason for this letter is to say a big thank you to everyone who helped turn my inert script into an unforgettably entertaining and informative history of Stroud and the Five Valleys between 1914 and 1919.

Thanks are due to: Whiteshill and Ruscombe Community Choir - conductor Jane Williams; the Nailsworth Silver Band Member - conductor Paul McLaughlin; the actors, who were Kim Baker, John Bassett, Eley Furrell, Lloyd Morgans, Paul Southcott, Roger Burfield, Hugh Young and Josie Young; the dancers, who were Lucas Bailey and Megan Stitchley (from the Linda Virgoe Academy); the Museum in the Park, the Soldiers of Gloucestershire Museum, Pathe News and the Imperial War Museum for pictures, and finally, the Subscription Rooms and its appreciative audience. Apologies if I have missed anyone out.

This is a unique and powerful show – I hope we can somehow ensure that it travels around the town and the Five Valleys over the next four years.

Stuart Butler

Rodborough