Ruffs Christmas Card 2011

Over the years - eight now since Rufus Ruff first appeared - many of our customers have been kind enough to comment on the Christmas card we mail out each year in December. It has been described variously as colourful, vibrant and funny - all of which I take as a considerable compliment. Thank you. 

Does the card and the semblance of a story that is evolving mean anything though? Believe it or not, there is a plan and we are hoping it will develop one day into a cartoon feature film along the lines of The Incredibles. Indeed, if any of you out there know Brad Bird, who was responsible for the that wonderful film, please point him in our direction!

Rufus Ruff is a slightly foppish Georgian gentleman along the lines of the Scarlet Pimpernel - perhaps he is the Scarlet Pimpernel!? His friend and confident is Lady Robyn Redbreast and between them they have rescued a shipload of exotic birds bound for slavery en route to the West Indies via Bristol.

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“Rufus Ruff, the star of the Ruffs Christmas card series, is a slightly foppish Georgian gentleman along the lines of the Scarlet Pimpernel!”

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Lady Robyn has a residence in Bristol - a large Georgian house on several floors. It is here that they are celebrating Christmas with their new friends from far flung places and where Rufus fails to appear until the afternoon of Christmas Day. 

The rescue of the birds was a hazardous and swashbuckling business: Rufus and Lady Robyn have acquired folk-hero status on the one hand but have made dangerous enemies of the slave-traders on the other. 

It remains to be seen where the story goes - I wouldn’t want to spoil anything - but they may need to cross to France that is now embroiled in the French Revolution and no place for an aristocrat. There is an interesting connection with the Court in London and there will be some retribution embarked upon by the slave-traders. Watch this space, as they say...