THOUSANDS of Americans have been introduced to the unique charm of Abergavenny for the first time thanks to the exploits of a local semi-professional long-distance runner and his friends.

Long-term readers of the Abergavenny Chronicle will be familiar with the Monmouthshire maverick, Johnny Turnip, whose ramblings have graced the paper since 2016.

Although he left the town in 2020 to live in a cave just outside of Builth Wells for four years, he has since returned and his latest adventures have been the subject of a popular podcast across the pond.

Kentucky Man and the founder of Fark.com, Drew Curtis, was so intrigued by the fantastical escapades of Abergavenny’s most famous amateur athlete that he and his co-hosts spent a large part of their latest podcast discussing if the town’s legendary Turnip was real or not.

Initially, they mused that because the tales from the Turnip Patch were so outlandish, that the Abergavenny Chronicle might have been a satirical website like “the Welsh Onion or something.” Yet that notion soon died a quick death.

The idea was even mooted that Turnip could have been a construction of AI gone a little rogue. Yet Curtis quickly dismissed the idea and said, “AI is not this funny. I think they’ve just Welsh, that’s what it is!”

This was backed up by guest Lucky Yates who added, “When they do something in Wales they do it big.”

When asked how he felt about going global, Turnip replied, “It’s no shock I’m big in America. It was only ever a question of time. I never felt I was really given the dues I deserve by the natives around here, but you know, a prophet has no honour in his own hometown and all that!”

Turnip added, “It’s natural for a man like me to put their hometown on the worldwide map. It’s what I do! I’m larger than life and people are always asking me if I’m a figment of their imagination or if they're a figment of mine. When you've lived the kind of life I've led you learn to take this sort of thing in your stride."