Norman Thelwell

Norman Thelwell ( May 3, 1923 in Birkenhead; † 7 February 2004 in Romsey ) was a British cartoonist. He has published numerous drawings in the magazine Punch and various books.

Life and work

Thelwell, son of a machinist, attended school in his hometown of Birkenhead and entered 1941 in the British Army. There he was stationed as a soldier in the UK and India and produced during this time also his first published drawing, which appeared in the London Opinion. In 1944, he took some evening classes at the Art School in Nottingham, where she learned to know his future wife, whom he married in 1949. After the war Thelwell attended the Liverpool College of Art, and from 1950 he taught design and illustration at Wolverhampton College of Art His first of a total of over 1500 cartoons (including 60 title pages) Punch appeared in 1952. Starting in 1956, drew Thelwell full-time and he published a year later his first book entitled Angels on Horseback - a compilation of his drawings. As a freelance artist Thelwell also worked for various other newspapers and magazines, among other things, for the News Chronicle, the Sunday Dispatch and Sunday Express. In 1966 he became a founding member of the British Cartoonists ' Association.

Thelwell, father of two children, released a total of 32 books that have been sold in the UK alone more than two million copies. His trademark was a little girl riding on a thick bangs.