Welcome to issue number four of the BritShopS newsletter.

Firstly all of us on the BritShopS team would like to offer our heartfelt sympathy to all our customers, suppliers and associates who have been so badly affected by the recent torrential rain and resultant devastating floods. Our thoughts are with you in these difficult times.

Now to more upbeat news! As a post script in the last newsletter we mentioned that we were in the final stages of negotiation with two new suppliers, Greg D'Souza and Brays Sweets. We are delighted to announce that both of them have now joined the BritShopS family of suppliers and you can see all that they have to offer on the BritShopS shopping site.

Greg D'Souza is arguably one of the finest surrealist and fantasy artists working in the country today. He has a colourful and varied history, including a past life as one of Helena Rubenstein's top make-up artists, moving from there into film make-up most particularly for Australian cinema. Having got the "bug" he moved from behind the screen action to action of a different kind in front of the camera. For a number of years Greg was a stunt man in Australian cinema and can be seen in numerous films being punched, thrown off buildings or crashing cars. We understand Greg was the stunt double for James Garner, of The Rockford Files fame, when he was filming in Australia!

Whilst all of this was going on Greg was always to be seen with a paintbrush in his hand following his true love of art. His distinctive style and delicacy of touch have earned him praise from all quarters and he has had many exhibitions in both the UK and Australia.

Today Greg continues to produce his magnificent pieces, working from his own inspiration and undertaking various commissions across a broad spectrum of styles, and he runs art classes to share his knowledge and skill with others who long to be able to paint like him.

Greg has used his experiences throughout his life to develop and expand his art and we are delighted to announce that he has four of his magnificent paintings available through BritShopS. Some may say they are an expensive item but can you put a price on quality artwork? We guarantee that all the pieces are original works by Greg D'Souza and you will not find them available anywhere else in the world.

Brays Sweets have also joined the fold with their selection of fine quality hand-made confectionery. Brays Sweets is one of the leading family owned confectionery manufacturers in Britain today and began manufacturing their quality handmade sweets in 1867 in Barry, a small town on the coast of South Wales. They pride themselves on their hand-made production techniques, most of which have hardly changed in 140 years. Indeed the Managing Director, Stephen Bray, is more often than not to be found in the factory getting involved in the process. Stephen says he can trace the art of sweet making back to his great, great, grandfather. It is told that he sold a recipe for toffee to a man called Macintosh...

Today, using only the finest ingredients, Brays' sweets are still made using recipes handed down from generation to generation, maintaining their home-made taste. Modern production equipment is used simply to meet demand.

BritShopS were more than a little pleased to be able to offer some of Brays magnificent gift items to the marketplace. There is a huge number of varieties and flavours available, including Welsh toffee, fudge of various varieties, traditional Lossin Dant Welsh mints and nougat, available in decorative tins, traditional Kraft Bags or gift cartons. We even have a commemorative Welsh gift mug filled with sweets. The perfect gifts for any friends or relatives you may have in the South American Welsh speaking enclave of Patagonia!

Now, with the inclusion of Brays Sweets in our list of suppliers, BritShopS can offer a trip back down memory lane and into the sweet shop on the way home from school.

Occasionally we find our suppliers have specific terms for parts of the manufacturing process or the finished products and we sit there smiling and looking knowledgeable whilst we talk to them before rushing off to the dictionary to find out what they were talking about! Consequently we came up with the idea of a glossary. Having looked up the word glossary too we all decided that it would be a great addition to the BritShopS information site. Now if you want to know why there's a mousse in your sparkling wine, what trompe l'œil means or to discover the secret of hard crack in the making of sweets, then look no further than the Glossary page of the BritShops Information site. As more producers baffle us with science we will continue to nod sagely before rushing off and adding their expressions to the glossary!

Kind Regards
The BritShopS Team
www.BritShopS.co.uk