I recently went to the opening night of The Cartoonists, an annual show at Chris Beetles in London. Alas, there is no Gerald Scarfe and no Steve Bell, but there is Ronald Searle, Peter Brookes, Giles, Tony Husband and many others, as well as old greats H. M. Bateman and W. Heath Robinson.
I've been a fan of Peter Brookes ever since I was eight and saw his cartoon of Margaret Thatcher as the Rabid Old Bat (Federalis Anathema), part of the Nature Notes series. I wrote twice to him, sending him some of my own drawings, and he replied, encouraging me to continue drawing, and even sending me a sketch of Dan Blair (from another wonderful series of cartoons, based on Dan Dare, with Tony Blair as Dan Dare and William Hague as the Mekon, with his enormous bald head). Nature Notes is still going on, appearing every week in The Times and exhibited every two years at the Chris Beetles Gallery.
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