A cartoon I drew at the age of eight, in 1951, in
the autograph book of a school friend who
returned it to me years later.
side, though I was hardly encouraged, some
years later, by my tutor at Birmingham
Art College, who assured me that I would
never earn a living as a cartoonist (as
opposed, presumably, the thousands of fine
artists for whom the development of their
talent enabled them to enjoy a fabulously
luxurious lifestyle). Leaving art college
(prematurely, you may not be surprised to
hear) and needing to earn some money, I
obtained employment in a furniture shop
and, in my spare time (which, working in a
furniture shop I had a great deal of), started
sending cartoons to the Daily Mirror. With
no success. I think the fact that I used odd
scraps of paper, some of it lined, didn’t really
help.
A
t the same time, my musical side was
making its presence known, and I was
te