About Us

We are Claire Gallagher and Mark Taunton, and we opened The Curious Mr Fogg online in 2016, followed by our shop in the lovely seaside town of Ilfracombe in 2017.  We love travelling and the more we travelled, the more interesting people we met and the more amazing souvenirs we bought. Once the souvenirs became so numerous we had to start shipping them back seperately we knew it was time to find an outlet, not only to stop our house from bursting at the seams, but also to help the artisans who make such wonderful products, many of whom live in some of the poorest parts of the world. Since meeting many of them, we have realised that by helping them at a grass-roots level such as buying directly and paying for materials up-front we can do a tiny bit to help improve their lives, and in turn they have taught us about their vibrant cultures and family life, helping to improve our lives in the process. We refuse to work with anyone who uses child labour, meaning children - especially girls- get to say in education. It is becoming a widely accepted understanding that educating young girls is the best and most long-lasting route out of poverty in many areas of the world.

Covid has bought us many challenges beyond the obvious but we are looking forward to resuming our buying trips in February 2023 so look out for new products from Mexico, Panama and Colombia.  We also hope to bring in more Spanish and Portuguese ceramics, although Brexit has made this a much more time-consuming and expensive endeavour than it used to be unfortunately. We have had to look for new sources for products and so as well as buying from other UK-based Fairtrade importers, we also buy from companies in other parts of the world who are part of The Ethical Trading Initiative. If you would like more information, please do not hesitate to contact us.