DLC - 4. Jon Cruddas

Jon Cruddas is M.P. for Dagenham. This illustration was included in the Fabian Society publication, but I was pleased with it as a drawing.

DLC - 3. Hazel Blears

Hazel Blears is currently Chair of the Labour Party and Minister without Portfolio. She also proved one of the most difficult subjects to caricature. I'm still not pleased with this ... damn it.

DLC - 2. Hilary Benn

Hilary Benn is currently Secretary of State for International Development. He is also the son of Tony Benn, socialist and Labour Party maverick.

Deputy Leadership Contest - Harriet Harman

I was recently commissioned to produce some illustrations for a pamphlet published by the Fabian Society. It contains essays by each of the prospective candidates for the Deputy Leadership of the Labour Party. I'm posting some of the drafts rejected for the pamphlet - they are much closer to caricature than the illustrations in the publication. There is, then, not a full set of all six candidates - any omissions are not meant to indicate any political view.

Harriet Harman is currently Minister of State in the new Ministry of Justice.

Popery

12 February 2007 (With apologies to Velasquez).

A response to a link sent to me by my sister (in response to an earlier posting). Also, I can't be the first person to notice the resemblance between Velasquez' portrait of Pope Innocent X and Gene Hackman?

Pope Innocent X

Gene Hackman

Cut Out and Keep Series 2.

Cut Out and Keep Rod Stewart - December 2006 (for Mum ... and Simon, if he's wearing the wig).

Cut Out and Keep Series 1.

1. Cut Out and Keep Bob Dylan. (For Tom - December 2006)

Fraternal nonsense 2.

Pope Bob (April 2005). My sister has always disdained my obsession with the music of Bob Dylan. She would not believe that Dylan met Pope John Paul II after a concert in Bologna, September 1997, even though there is video evidence of their meeting.

Fraternal nonsense

My sister is a responsible adult and active member of the Labour Party who works for an organisation called Involve, dedicated to increasing participation in public politics. Recently she has been campaigning to restore her local library in Lea Bridge and make it a viable resource for local children. She has a PhD from the London School of Economics.

So every now and then I send her pictures of Ben Affleck eating pies or Bob Dylan dressed as the Pope, obviously. I'm grateful to her for giving me permission to include some of them on this site.



'Who Ate All the Pies?' (April 2003). Parody of Ben Affleck in the film Daredevil. (Family in-joke about Affleck's weight since Good Will Hunting.)

Joyce Study Day

Durham University held a Study Day last summer devoted to the works of James Joyce. It was organised by myself, Vike Plock and Stephen Regan. Our guest speaker was eminent Joycean Fritz Senn from the Zurich Joyce Foundation. Other speakers included Matt Bevis, Richard Brown and Professor Willy Maley. This picture of Joyce in front of Durham cathedral was used for the posters and pamphlets advertising the event.

O.R.B. 5

Oxonian Review of Books - Trinity Term, 2003 - Illustration (Proust with spliff) to accompany Jeremy Townley's review of The Road of Excess: A History of Writers on Drugs by Marcus Boon.

O.R.B. 4

Oxonian Review of Books - Trinity Term 2003 - Illustration to accompany Brian Mullin's review of Toward a New Catholic Church by James Carroll.

O.R.B. 3

Oxonian Review of Books -Hilary 2002 - Illustration to accompany C.E.J. Simons's review of Sputnik Sweetheart by Haruki Murakami. Tim Philips supplied me with the Cyrillic characters for Laika and Sputnik - his book about the Beslan school siege is published later this year. Any inaccuracy in the cartoon is my fault.

O.R.B. 2

Oxonian Review of Books - Michaelmas 2002 - Illustration to accompany Jennifer Dunn's review of Life of Pi by Yann Martel. (This book won the Man Booker Prize that year.)

The Oxonian Review of Books

Towards the end of my doctoral studies at Christ Church, a group of graduate students headed by Sara Galvan and Chris Bradley set up the Oxonian Review of Books. It is still an ongoing concern and publishes an archive of past issues on the internet.

The Move to Oxford

When I moved to Oxford to pursue graduate studies, I tried contributing illustrations to Cherwell one of two student newspapers there (the other is the Oxford Student), but for some reason this faltered after two attempts. Unfortunately, these only survive as clippings, so the scans are not very good.

Cherwell c. Spring 1998 - illustration to accompany 'Spice up your life' by Stephanie Holmes, an article about Salsa dancing at Frevds restaurant / bar in Oxford. (This may be the same Stephanie Holmes who now works for the BBC.)

Cherwell 20th February 1998 - illustration to accompany news item about the Oxford University Dance team. Don't ask me why they are both pictures of dancers.

Paris

I spent a year living in Paris after I graduated from Cambridge. I lived in the 20e arrondissement on the rue dupont de l'Eure, just round the corner from Prisunic and, fortunately, a police station (helps keep down crime in the neighbourhood). I worked for an International MBA school, a transcription company called 'Hors Ligne' (now Ubiquis) and a dodgy English language school.

This did not leave much time for illustrating, apart from this one piece of whimsy.

'Baudelaire's Cat' - a (failed) entry for the Independent newspaper's cartoon competition February 1997.

Festive decoration

First draft of angel decoration for a lop-sided Christmas tree, December 2006
Angel decoration on lopsided Christmas tree, December 2006.

Cambridge Misc. 3

'Webster was much possessed by death and saw the skull beneath the skin.'
(c. October 1994). Unpublished.

An illustration inspired by lines from the poem 'Whispers of Immortality' by T.S. Eliot.

Cambridge Misc. 2

Caricature of Eric Griffiths as Louis XIV, the Sun King (c.1995/1996). Unpublished.

Eric Griffiths was my tutor at Trinity College, Cambridge. Amongst other topics he taught and lectured on the French playwright Jean Racine, which is obscure origin of this picture. He is the author of The Printed Voice of Victorian Poetry and the lengthy introduction to Dante in English, amongst other critical works.

Cambridge Misc. 1

Cambridge Sports No. 1 'Croquet with the Master of Trinity College'. Caricature of Sir Michael Atiyah. Unpublished.

Varsity turncoat cont. 8

Varsity [copy missing] October 1995 - caricature of Professor Stephen Hawking.

Varsity turncoat cont. 7

Varsity 3 May 1996 - Illustration to accompany 'New Power Generation' by Richard Clarke, an interview with Peter Mandelson.

Varsity turncoat cont. 6

Varsity 1st March 1996 - Illustration to accompany 'A Tory Story', a mock interview with Conservative backbencher 'Sir Thomas Figgs MP' by REJ Pattinson.

Varsity turncoat cont. 5

Varsity 23rd February 1996 - Illustration to accompany 'Stereotykes' by Clare Burns (an article identifying a 'hybrid of hippy / nerd' in Cambridge undergraduate circles).

Varsity turncoat cont. 4

Varsity 2nd February 1996 - 'Little things were constantly reminding the Fletchers of their marital difficulties.' - Illustration to accompany 'The Tower of Love' by Simon Hamilton (an article about the erotic attractions of university libraries).

Varsity turncoat cont. 3

Varsity 19th January 1996 - Caricature to accompany 'Interview with Josie Lawrence' by Catherine Stedman.

Varsity turncoat cont. 2

Varsity 10th November 1995 - Illustration to accompany 'Dead ends of the Earth' by Alistair Robinson, a round-up of dangerous holiday spots.

Varsity Turncoat

When broadsheet folded, I began contributing cartoons and illustrations to Varsity under the editorship of Johnny Elliot.

the broadsheet years cont. 6

broadsheet undated (Spring 1995) - Advertisement (Oscar Wilde in Modern Dress)

the broadsheet years cont. 5

broadsheet February / March 1995 - Advertisement 'Poor Bar-Steward' (Stephen Fry).

the broadsheet years cont. 4

broadsheet 9th November 1994 - Illustration to Review of The Earl of Rochester's Sodom by Lloyd Mangram [Nick Hallam and Sophie Ratcliffe].

the broadsheet years cont. 3

broadsheet 9th November 1994 - Advertisement 'Margery says it's absolutely depraved.' (With apologies to Timothy Birdsall).

the broadsheet years cont. 2

broadsheet 27th October 1994 - Advertisement (Michael Portillo & Peter Lilley)

The broadsheet years

The student magazine broadsheet was published in Cambridge until the early 1980s when commercial sponsorship acquired by Varsity, another student newspaper, drove broadsheet out of print. In 1994, Eric Griffiths led a brief, sadly doomed effort to resurrect broadsheet, raising funds from, amongst others, Christopher Ricks and Germaine Greer. Martin Rowson (cartoonist laureate to Ken Livingstone) supplied a drawing for the front cover.

The new broadsheet was edited by Joanna Droop. Contributors included Nick Hallam, Chris Goode, Tom Hampson, Jerome de Groot, Eddie Sterne and Sophie Ratcliffe.