ISSN: 2977-6368
PENS DOWN
Each issue TNC highlights a new book to review. Helping cartoonists fill the gaps between deadlines...
DRAWING A CLASS WAR
UK HISTORY THROUGH A CARTOON LENS, CAPTURING A LOOK AT THE 1984-85 MINERS STRIKE
A new book shines a Davy lamp on political cartoons during the bitter miners’ strike in the mid eighties. It includes around 130 cartoons. It’s by Nicholas Jones who was the BBC industrial and senior political correspondent for over 20 years. He’s also written many books on UK politics and industrial relations. The miners’ strike was one of the most monumental stories during his long career. Nick kept an impressive archive of newspaper cuttings and magazines as well as his BBC scripts on the strike, all of which included a large amount of the daily cartoons from the print media. He has since donated this collection to Sheffield University. The book includes a foreword by former Guardian cartoonist Steve Bell. Steve has also been recording his reflections 40 years on from the miners’ strike on his personal blog. THE STRIKES This fascinating book looks at how cartoonists covered the miners’ strike. One interesting aspect is how much prominence political cartoons had in a very different media landscape well before the diversification of how people encounter news. There was no internet or 24 hour news channels and newspapers had huge readerships. On the whole the mainstream news outlets, even the ones considered centre left, took a position against the strike: it remained for smaller, harder left publications to give an alternative voice. This was also reflected in the cartoons. NUM President Arthur Scargill was portrayed as the pantomime villain and Labour opposition leader Neil Kinnock depicted as his puppet. This amplified the feeling of ‘us versus them’ and the siege mentality of the striking mine workers. All the newspapers were still black and white which really suited the cartoons on this often bleak story of pit closures, divided unions, picket lines, aggressive Margaret Thatcher government and brutal confrontations with accusations of ‘over zealous’ policing. REVIEW BY 'MARSHALL NOT FUNNY'
ROWSON AS YOU PLEASE
38 YEARS OF WRITINGS WITH MIND BOGGLING ARTWORK ALL CAPTURED IN ONE PLACE
To understand talent, sometimes you need to look beyond the obvious; to go deeper and have a good rummage beneath the bonnet. With a book on the scale of Martin Rowson’s As I Please, with 470 odd pages of his writings and drawings over the past 38 years, this could feel like a daunting task, and you could take one look and think that you’ll have that rummage another day. Don’t! Admittedly, due to it’s length, this is not a book you just pick up and read over a weekend. This chunk of a bible is a place you dip into, drawing you in to that moment in time. Whether you agree or disagree with the opinions or passion on display at that time isn’t relevant. The writing grabs you instantly, and you can happily abandon whatever else you’re supposed to be doing and let it carry you off. Spanning two decades, Rowson ponders everything—the ideological battles inside Labour, the psychopathology of the Tory Party, London Zoo, the British class system, Doctor Who, terrorism—and anything else that comes to mind a day or so before the deadline. This book is a collection of these columns alongside Rowson’s other textual journalism, from tiny underground magazines in the US to contributions to the Guardian, the Independent, and many other mainstream publications, on a range of subjects ranging from the Charlie Hebdo massacre to Karl Marx. It’s not all heavyweight themes however, and much of the writing feels deeply personal and accessible. I loved the very moving Waitemata, written in the wake of Rowson’s father’s death, and Let’s kill Uncle, where the 11 year old Rowson begins to understand that horror “can, and often should be, played for laughs”, through the book by June Skinner he picks up at a secondhand bookstall. That he connects with the elderly writer, who’s daughter loved the piece, in 2024, and receives a personalized book from her, calling him her ‘perfect reader’, made me cry. You’ll also enjoy the incredible complexities of the fantastic artwork. An opening tale of the ‘Elephant in the Room’ takes you on a quite wonderful journey before you even get to the foreword by Kevin Maguire. It’s simply wonderful.
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
