“I first met Miss April Tomi on a somewhat gloomy and drizzly day about 120 years ago in the Fleet Street neighbourhood of London. As luck would have it, I was about to embark on a lengthy tropical journey and I required an updated and easily manageable hair style. I happened upon the sign for the barber shop of a Mr. Sweeney Todd when I literally bumped into Miss Tomi as she was running down the stairs I was ascending.

Removing my hat and smilingly apologizing, as a gentleman ought to do in such a situation, Miss Tomi inquired if I needed the services of an experienced barber. “Indeed I do,” I replied, “I was just coming round to a Mr. Todd for such an appointment...”

“Miss Tomi cast a quick and shrewd glance over me, then looked up at the doorway from which she had so recently retreated, and suggested that the “cuts of Mr. Todd are of a somewhat severe nature, and his humour is a bit macabre...

[Continued]