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English cartoonist
Timothy Birdsall
|
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Born
| Timothy Birdsall
(
1936-05-10
)
10 May 1936
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Died
| 10 June 1963
(1963-06-10)
(aged 27)
London, England
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Nationality
| British
|
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Occupation
| Cartoonist
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Known for
| That Was the Week that Was
, Sunday Times "Little Cartoon"
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Timothy Birdsall
(10 May 1936 ? 10 June 1963
[1]
) was an English
cartoonist
.
Life and work
[
edit
]
Birdsall was born in
London
. While an undergraduate at
Christ's College, Cambridge
, he illustrated
Granta
and formed part of the late 1950s talented set which included those later to become household names, such as
Peter Cook
and
Ian McKellen
.
[2]
His first job was with
The Sunday Times
, where he did the 'Little Cartoon' on the front page. He later became more widely known for his appearances on the
BBC
's
That Was The Week That Was
, doing cartoons live in the studio with an ink-marker on paper.
[3]
He also contributed to
Private Eye
and was appointed political cartoonist to
The Spectator
. He regularly caricatured the then prime minister
Harold Macmillan
,
Harold Wilson
, and
Lord Beaverbrook
, who issued a writ against him.
[4]
Birdsall's cartoons satirised the
Profumo scandal
, besides the Church of England and rearguard Britain's faulty attempts to emerge into the 'swinging Sixties'. Illness prevented him from doing more than about twenty of these political cartoons, and he succumbed to
leukaemia
, aged 27. He was survived by his widow, the actress
Jocelyn Britton
.
After his death the
BBC
made a tribute programme.
Michael Frayn
and
Bamber Gascoigne
organised a posthumous exhibition of his works at the William Ware Gallery in London.
[5]
His book illustrations include
The Theatres of London (1961)
by
Raymond Mander and Joe Mitchenson
,
The Party Givers' Book (1959)
by Mary Gallati,
The World In My House (1960)
by Joan Harborne,
Really Nurse (1960)
and
Wake Up Nurse (1963)
by Roger Brook,
The Day Of The Dog (1962)
by Michael Frayn, and
France on Ten Words a Day (1963)
by H. McCarty-Lee.
References
[
edit
]