26.2.10

Cloudspotters cartoon: A little background

"Ha ha, that cloud looks just like Frederick Pethick-Lawrence, Financial Secretary to the Treasury, 1929-1931."

This is one of two cartoons I've got in the new issue of Prospect magazine, and has to be among the more off-the-wall gags that I've had published.

I had the set-up rattling around in my head for a while i.e. someone saying a cloud looks like something, or someone, impossibly obscure, with another person looking on in bemusement. But I couldn't think of a suitable subject.

Then, and I'm not sure how this happened, I hit on the idea of pre-war cabinet ministers. As you do. A spot of Googling later and I found Frederick Pethick-Lawrence, Financial Secretary to the Treasury, 1929-1931. The name somehow just seemed to fit the bill. So, thanks Fred (he was a Labour man, he wouldn't mind that.)


Frederick Pethick-Lawrence

Royston's portfolio website