That’s your lot then, in a week in which April’s showers arrived in May and Lewes’ many gardeners breathed a collective sigh of relief as their plants gulped thirstily at an entity some of them had never experienced - real rainwater. A week in which the French voted in Sarko and voted out their leisurely three-day-weekend lifestyle. And a week in which George Bush suggested that Queen Elizabeth was two hundred years older than she actually is.

This week we’d like to thank the following people, without whom this issue would not have been possible: Antony Penrose, Ian Welsh, Stephen Newberry, Duncan Baker-Brown, Maria Bailey, Roy Bailey, Peter Chasseaud, Laurence Hill, Adrienne Thomas, Amanda Cook, Mike Lance, Kevin Precious, Stuart Dew, Caitlin, Mike Lance, Tom Reeves and Dorothy Harrison.
This week’s contributors were: Emma Chaplin, Emma Robertson, Owen Postgate, Antonia Gabassi, Dexter Lee, Adrienne Campbell, Rachel Littlejohn, David Jarman, Scott Chowen, Nick Williams, Katie Moorman and Alex Leith. Apologies to Laurie Griffiths, author of the asparagus photograph in the May edition of the Viva Lewes Handbook.

Next week’s highlights include:
Friday 18th May: the start of the Charleston Festival, which will see writers like Clive James, Alain de Botton and Hermione Lee at the Bloomsbury lot’s country retreat.
Friday 18th: The weekend-long Lewes Folk Festival, getting stronger every year
Friday 18th: Charity auction, in aid of the Linklater Pavilion, at Southover Grange
Tuesday 22nd: Geoff Smith performs a live score to the 1922 Swedish classic Haxan, courtesy of Lewes Cinema.