About Me and This Website

I was born… under a wandering star. No I wasn’t. I just can’t say “I was born” without thinking of Lee Marvin growling out that song. I was born on a bed in a house between the hills and forests of North East Scotland and a sea loch. There were wild cats in the woods… and wolves and bears! The loch was full of sharks, whales and… mackerel! It was great, so the family immediately moved south. First to Perthshire thence to England and sunny Yorkshire.

I was a huge baby and knew immediately I was going to be some kind of artist. What kind remains unclear. I did nothing to clarify matters by dropping out of art school in the autumn of 1979. However in the spring of 1980 I had my first greetings card cartoons published by Camden Graphics.

There followed a few years of abject hopelessness. I tried to get a ‘proper’ job in advertising at the same time as getting work as a cartoonist/illustrator. I racked up rejections from agencies, agents and publishers. Standard stuff. Although I was still having work accepted by the greetings card industry.

In 1987 I began working for the fledgling publisher Paperlink. And here we are over 20 years later still bashing out the cards.

It hasn’t quite been all cards. I’ve illustrated a children’s book and produced cartoons for grown up books, magazines and even my local evening newspaper. However, I’ve never really pushed in these areas as, basically, I’m in full time employment working on greetings cards for Paperlink. I’m lucky. And the time not spent working is devoted to children, a dog, cutting grass, staring out the window and all that vital stuff.

If you’ve happened upon this website in search of an artist for your greetings card company I have to say- SORRY. I AM UNAVAILABLE FOR GREETINGS CARD WORK. And while I’m on about it, I DON’T DO PRIVATE COMMISSIONS. Yes, I know Fred and Doris’ new Llama is a scream but I’m not the guy to do the hilarious sketch for their anniversary.
Sounds awful but really there are lots of clever cartoonists who’d do a much better job. Just browse and thou shalt find.

This website is for the purposes of… of… er… I have no idea yet. It’s for the purposes of ‘being’… if you get my drift. If you do get my drift get in touch and tell me what it is. Thanks, much appreciated.

Actually,as well as for the purposes of whatever you can now purchase and download images to send as E cards to friends, family and people you wish to astonish with your good taste and sense of the amusing. Go on, you know you want to.

Further thanks to Paul Hodgson for making my foray into cyber existence enjoyable and painless. And of course thanks to my sponsor The Lapselater Foundation which has provided the funding for this site. You’ll find a blog on here by my old school acquaintance, Hugo Lapselater, who is now the spokesperson for the Foundation and curator of the Lapselater Collection. But please be aware his views are his own and nothing to do with me.

Thank you for visiting.