Bruvver.

There are 11 months between us, and my surprise arrival may well have generated some ‘heat’ for our father at the time. Me on the left, John with one hand protecting me and the other picking my pocket, perhaps. His birthday is on the same date as the King’s, so he gets a reminder. The cartoonist and the antique dealer, who would have thought it, both now at an age where we are both not quite antiques but might be termed ‘collectables’. The plan was to take a trip to West Wales to celebrate my brother’s significant birthday. I thought … Continue reading Bruvver.

“Go on then, make me laugh”

I listen to a lot of Radio 4, and there’s a lot of humour on the channel, and even more talk about whether something is funny or not. There’s a lot of ‘or not’ too. “Feedback”, a programme that looks at Radio 4 output, has recently had people complaining about a ‘so-called funny programme’ (so-called used here because they think it’s not ) called “Jonathan Pie”. This character first appeared on Social media and was a credible take on a TV News presenter’s foul-mouthed interaction between him and his producer, Roger. It was funny because it was so credible. For … Continue reading “Go on then, make me laugh”

Never buy from your Auntie

She was a lovely lady beneath the grump. Smoked like a chimney and as if she had to suck the thing to death. There I was without a car back in the early Rooster years. My partner (business rather than pleasure, but a pleasure doing business with him) and I were doing okay and managing our fledgling business quite well. Our only sleepless nights were when we were working due to the demands of the advertising businesses we served. It was the time of the three-day week in the 1970s when the lights went out, for Graham and me, the lights … Continue reading Never buy from your Auntie

Pie Chi and Fettling: A short introductory illustrated Guide to the Wigan Form of the Art.

Ear are tinstructions fot First form uv Wigan Pie Chi. Translation from the above is: Here are the instructions for the first form of Wigan Pie Chi, a North West of England form of the art where the tongue stays firmly in the cheek. Fettling is local parlance for fixing stuff, and these excersizes will fettle you. Enjoy. The passing of the pie ( Passin tut pie ) Stand with arms by your side, knees slightly bent, head up straight as if looking over someone’s shoulder at a Rugby league match. You should be wearing a shell suit or something … Continue reading Pie Chi and Fettling: A short introductory illustrated Guide to the Wigan Form of the Art.

Books you might not want to read on a train.

“Surrounded by Idiots”. It’s a book lent to me by my daughter in law whose high powered job is to look after people, not in a nursing sense, she’s big in Human Resources. Spends hours of her days talking on the telephone or via computer to people all over the world. The book is about people types and how they can be graded in colour, and on reading the first bit of it I started to understand exactly what it was talking about. It tells of a CEO of a large company who said he was surrounded by idiots, and … Continue reading Books you might not want to read on a train.

Embellishment, or advertising as it was called in those days.

“Did you really earn a living from that? Someone once asked me that, and there were many times when I thought someone else might, by the look on their face, ask me the same question again.What the questioners had in common was a look of utter disbelief that I did in fact make a living from drawing cartoons. I made a very good living from my so called skills, especially in the late 70s and 80s. “Will I have heard of you?” was another regular question and after I’d said “No” they would generally follow up with the name of … Continue reading Embellishment, or advertising as it was called in those days.

Pressed Meat

I’m not a vegetarian but along with many people eat nowhere near as much meat as I used to. I have happy memories of when I did go to butchers shops to buy, and in some ways I was unusual. It was almost always the woman in th a family who went to see the butcher. By their very nature butchers were always big blokes wearing the regulation striped aprons of their trade. Very unlikely to find a man wearing an apron back in those days, other than butchers, and they tended to be big butch blokes too with a … Continue reading Pressed Meat

Coming up next year…

I’m working on a little book written by my chum Gordon Thorburn, ( Men and Sheds ) who apart from writing about sheds and bomber pilots from the Second World War ( Books about all sorts ), has written a little tome about…well, I’ll leave exactly what it’s about until I have it all ready. I’m doing the drawings for it and hope to publish it on-line in the New Year, or perhaps will be able to make a start before Christmas, as you’ll have plenty of time to read, learn, and digest. We’ll see. It will be on this site … Continue reading Coming up next year…

Jasper Johns must have been a gardener.

Or at least a man with a shed. For those not of an artistic persuasion, you should know that Jasper Johns was, and perhaps is, a great American artist.He’s still with us! I recall in my late school days loving his work. As I understand it he went out of favour later on in his career, though I claim no special knowledge. He has an exhibition on in London at present at the Royal Academy, so I presume that those in the flow of these things, consider it’s time to resurrect his reputation. Jasper Johns Exhibition at the RA I … Continue reading Jasper Johns must have been a gardener.

Some of my friends have gone…

These chaps above have all gone to new homes as well as the finished version of the one below. In many ways I prefer the one below to the final. I’m sure they’ve all gone to good homes. The bike drawing has been sold for charity, so I am particularly pleased about that. It was bought by a chap who’s friend is greatly into motorbikes. The charity that will benefit is Headway. This one’s for charity Hoping for a fine day today so that I can find new homes for some of the others, but it’s been a good week anyway. … Continue reading Some of my friends have gone…