PENS DOWN
Each issue TNC highlights a new book to review. Helping cartoonists fill the gaps between deadlines...
THE BELL TOLLS FOR US ALL
A LOOK BACK AT THE PAST SIX YEARS THROUGH THE PRISIM OF THE UK’S GREATEST CARTOONIST
Some books can be easily categorised, their genre readily outlined and labelled on a shelf with others in the same ilk. There are some however that are far away from the norm and are simply ‘stand alone’. If you take a moment and just think back over the last six years, there’s a lot to remember. There’s the mayhem of Brexit, Trump, and Tory leadership battles. Royals moving on to other realms, wars aplenty and new Labour Party leaders. We had the Covid pandemic, with clapping for nurses and masks, and let’s not forget a bunch of marauding goats in Llandudno. Now throw in the mind of Steve Bell with Ack Ack from Mars attacks, grizzly lord penguins, bum-faced Boris and baked bean factions, and you have a piece of work which is impossible to explain or review. Bell also explains in detail the end of his ‘If” strip, and his own unseemly departure from the Guardian comment pages. A story of the wrong people getting upset over a cartoon that never was anti-semitic, and of uncommunicative editors. The fact that the Israeli Cartoonists Association deemed the cartoon not anti-semitic says it all. As a cartoonist it’s something you just have to have. BUY IT.
A LIFE LIVED IN CARTOONS
A CARTOON ANTHOLOGY FOLLOWING THE LIFE OF THE UK’S FAMOUS
WAR-TIME LEADER
A fascinating new book edited by Tim Benson, highlighting the 60 year career of the most caricatured politician in history through the prism of cartoons, has just been released. Churchill’s A life in Cartoons spans his career from entering Parliament in 1900 through to his retirement in 1954. The Anthology primarily focuses on his exploits during the second world war and the years preceding it. Often lampooned in his early years for misjudgements and follies, Winston Churchill spent most of the 1920’s in a political wilderness due to his support of Edward VIII during the Abdication crisis and his views on India. He went on to have a pivotal role in our response to World War II. This fascinating book is packed with over 240 pages of striking political cartoons with detailed explanations to add context. It charts Churchill’s illustrious and tumultuous political career through the work of leading cartoonists from around the world. Through these cartoons there developed very contrary views of Churchill; the glorious cigar-chomping wartime leader, but also the flawed politician. In America he was adored by cartoonists, while in Nazi Germany and in the post-war Soviet Union he was, unsurprisingly, painted as a bumbling buffoon. Featuring the work of the some of the greatest cartoonists of all time including the great David Low Churchill, A life in Cartoons includes the very best and wittiest portrayals of Churchill. Here he is the glorious wartime leader, controversial politician, and emblematic British statesman who will be remembered always. If you are a fan of historical cartoons than this book is a must and well worth an online trip to Amazon! Churchill - A life in Cartoons Hutchinson Heinemann £14.99
