This was the polite way that I was told that I had drawn the short straw when I worked for the printers. In actual fact I did not mind in the least. I got the clients that no-one else wanted, or would prefer not to deal with. In the ten years that I worked at the print company my cartoon work was mainly on hold, but I collected more inspiration there than in many previous years. The gentleman had a slight midlands ‘brummie’ burr to his voice and he asked me if we could do Christmas cards and could I … Continue reading “Looks like you get the eccentrics”

I used to work for a printing company in Gloucester, it was a career break from my former trade which was drawing cartoons for a living. I was hired to sell print, very kind of them to have the faith in me to think that I could do it. One of my clients at the company was the Cathedral in Gloucester. They proved to be brilliant clients in every respect. Apart from being a joy to work with ( and unlike some clients I always considered that I worked with them rather than for them ) I had the joy … Continue reading Gargoyles in Gloucester, a tidy job.

This time Robin and I chose Shab Hill which has superb views over Gloucestershire and is close to the A417 which is due to be diverted soon to solve a log jam of traffic that builds up at the Air Balloon roundabout. A huge new double carriageway is due to cross some outstanding countryside. We took a walk over some of it and then recorded Robin and the song: “Digging up the road”. We just did a couple of the verses, the first one is the original. The original song only had two verses, so I wrote some more for … Continue reading Digging up the road… jam tomorrow?

This is the first of hopefully a few little videos, this one done about a week ago down at the area of the Severn here in the UK, where the river meets the start of the sea and where the canal that takes ships from the river up to Gloucester Docks begins. The Docks here at Sharpness are still used but very few freight ships go up the canal to Gloucester, the waterway being used more these days for pleasure craft. It makes for a good walk and has a great mix of industrial and countryside. I particularly like the … Continue reading Donkeys and Sharpness

This is the title of one of my most popular blogs, very strange. So jumping on the bandwagon and latching on to it’s popularity here are a couple of drawings from a short film I did a couple of years ago to accompany a song called ” Do you want us to win the war?” Can’t remember the particular lyrics but I suppose it must be about a loyal bovine, so here are the drawings. What will they make of this in Afghanistan? Someone from there dropped into the site just the other day. If it was you: “Hello”. Continue reading Cows sleep standing up.

I had no excuse. Prevarication is my middle name, actually it’s Edward, but that’s another story I’ll get around to boring you with in due course. To make me feel useful I did a series of drawings about social distance. Then I made some little videos of them. Dual purpose videos, first of all I hope they get the message across about keeping one’s distance. We British are supposed to be stand offish, we it turns out we are not stand offish enough. Second is to bring a modicum of cheer to anyone who’s watching and to illustrate exactly how … Continue reading What did you do in the shutdown Grandad?

To cheer anyone out there here’s a video of my friend Robin singing on the banks of the River Severn some months ago. We plan to do some more of these, but when it’s a least a little drier out there. Look out for them. Continue reading Surely the sky is empty by now

My walking friend Robin tell me that the stunning light at this time of year is down to dust and the reds in the air. I think that’s what he said but like in my maths lessons at school I was not concentrating enough. My mind has a habit of wandering off, it’s a little like my sense of direction. Rescue is at hand in the form of an App on my phone that tells me where we are, and where we should be. Of course the problem is making sure there’s enough juice in the phone to keep it … Continue reading It’s to do with the reds…

Thought I’d share these images taken over the last few days in rural Derbyshire. The September and late evening sunshine in two of them combined with a brilliant atmospheric light and cloudscape made for a high contrast photos. No photoshop on these at all, this is pure Derbyshire. So glad I took that early evening walk out of Tideswell last night. Continue reading Derbyshire in the sunshine

We all take odd things on holiday. I recall in my schooldays before airline security was a thing, my school friends and I put a house brick into a fellow schoolboys luggage when he was due to fly to join his parents on their airforce base in Cyprus. We were at a boarding school that had a clientele of boys whose parents were in the forces, mainly the RAF. So when we started school again we all wondered if he’d taken the brick to Cyprus and indeed he had. I’m not really that keen on practical jokes, many played on … Continue reading Taking lettuce to Derbyshire

A proper tap has at least three prongs and one spout for hot, and the other on the other side is for cold. It’s easy to grip with soapy hands and is a classic of its time. It has washers in the right places and it served the nation well, you can still get them but like almost all taps they are probably made in China. The modern tap can have all sorts of fancy ways to switch it on and can includes a bit that operates the metal plug for the basin. It’s not a proper tap. It has … Continue reading Taps, is this progress?

I’m in Derbyshire and this is a typical Derbyshire dry stone wall. Unusually it’s been very dry here and across the U.K. in the last few weeks. We didn’t get a green and pleasant land by having blue skies and sunshine. We are having a bit of a break before the weather starts to change and winter is upon us, and walls like these return to their normally damp state. A big thanks to all those lovely people who donated to Longfield in exchange for one or both of my recently published books for children. So far I have sold … Continue reading By way of a change…