Looking back at…The Beatles

I’m proud to have illustrated looking back at…The Beatles (Cognitive Books), which tells the Beatles story from their early days ripping it up in the Cavern and Hamburg, through to the breakup, just seven world-changing years later.

With its rhyming text by Matt Singleton, the book has been carefully developed in close collaboration with the Alzheimer’s Society, so that it can be enjoyed by people living with dementia or other cognitive difficulties, many of whom struggle to read and may have given up followed a diagnosis. You can read more about the project at Cognitive Books’ site.

I’m pleased that this week the book is now out in the world complete with an audio version narrated by the terrific Bill Nighy, and that I can share some of this work with you. Here are four of the final illustrations.

Although I’ve been commissioned to draw the Beatles in a few different ways in recent years, this was a rare chance to dive deep into a subject I know and love, exploring the whole story. As you can see, I had fun picking up on all the references in the text and adding plenty of extra details for fellow fans to spot. Watching my Anthology DVDs so many times paid off here! 

I thought I’d share are a couple of the early roughs, seeing as you’ve read this far – a few things got shuffled around, cut or added as the book took shape.

I’m delighted that the book’s had a really positive launch this week, with coverage on The World at One and BBC Breakfast among other things. It’s great that it will be helping people with dementia rediscover the joy of reading, and even connecting them to their memories of this most beloved of bands. As well as from the usual bookshops, the book can be ordered from the Alzheimer’s Society, helping to support the work they do to give help and hope to people suffering from this dreadful condition.

Folk Tunes and Englishness

Folk Tunes and Englishness

I’ve created the artwork for a new podcast, Folk Tunes and Englishness. This will be a three-part series in which Dr Alice Little explores English traditional music, its history, and how it is played and passed on today, with input from various musicians, researchers and collectors.

Very glad to be a small part of this, and podcast art is an exciting first for me!

3. English folk tunes, borders, nationalism and race – Folk Tunes and Englishness

Dr Alice Little, Knowledge Exchange Fellow with the University of Oxford and the English Folk Dance and Song Society, speaks with folk musicians and researchers Cohen Braithwaite-Kilcoyne, Nicola Beazley, Stewart Hardy, Tom Kitching, and Marie Bashiru about the borders of English folk music – regionally, racially, and conceptually. From the traditions of the North East to those of the North West, from Scottish musicians in England to the influences of Irish immigration, this episode features recordings of a range of folk music (including previously unreleased tracks) in addition to the discussion.

1. 3. English folk tunes, borders, nationalism and race 27:24
2. 2. English folk tunes in performance today 27:50
3. 1. A history of English folk tunes 30:13
4. Trailer 01:58

A short trailer was released this morning, with the series itself to follow soon. Listen and subscribe via your podcast app of choice here.

Checking it twice

Another Yuletide doodle!

Carol singers

Good tidings we bring to you and your kin

I’m wasting no time in summoning some much-needed festive spirit as 2020 draws to a close. Over the weekend we decorated our tree (with the most precious/dangerous baubles positioned well above toddler-on-tiptoes height for the first time) and frosty fingers have been gathering winter greenery for the wreath.

It feels like time for a fireside Negroni and a spin of Nick Lowe’s Quality Street.

Wishing you all a very merry Christmas and a splendid 2021!

Outlaw

Having fun drawing this character – a heroic outlaw with freakishly long limbs.

The Owl and the Pussy-Cat

The Owl and The Pussy-Cat by Edward Lear – a nonsense poem that means a lot to me! Even so, I’ve never tried to draw my own take on it before, so here it is.

 

Chough

A Cornish chough for St. Piran’s Day!

St. Piran is the patron saint of Cornwall and tin miners. The Irish, jealous of his miraculous powers, threw him into the stormy sea tied to a millstone, but he washed up at Perranporth. There he lived as a hermit and established a cult – the first members of which were a fox, a badger and a boar.

Gool Peran Lowen!

Year of the Dog

Little Red Riding Hood

AdventureX

I’m delighted to have been involved in creating these papercraft Kickstarter rewards for AdventureX 2017, the narrative gaming convention taking place in London on 11th and 12th November.

For several years Adventure X has been bringing together developers & gamers with a passion for interactive storytelling. I’ve drawn my take on a dozen characters from some popular narrative games, the heads and bodies of whom can now be mixed up in all sorts of fun configurations, once the figurines have been assembled.

The full list of characters briefed included hapless would-be pirate Guybrush Threepwood from the Monkey Island series, the villainous mutant Purple Tentacle from Day of the Tentacle, and more recent heroes like Clementine from The Walking Dead – and The Witcher himself, Geralt of Rivia.

It was a particular challenge to make sure that such a variety of characters all lined up around the shoulders, so that the mix-and-match idea worked, but I think these turned out great. I’m especially fond of Bobbin & a swan from the 1990’s Loom (a sort of melancholy, metaphysical, musical fairy tale that I would recommend to anyone).

There’s even the promise of a giant version of one of the figurines, for visitors to play with at the event itself! Here it is being assembled:

Video games, especially those that tell a story, have been a strong influence of my work –  indeed, it’s hard to think of many things more formative for me than playing Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge. I even dabble in making my own small adventure games these days. As you can imagine, this AdventureX project has been something I enjoyed getting my teeth into.

I’m looking forward to attending the convention in a week’s time and meeting some other narrative gaming enthusiasts, amongst a great programme of talks – perhaps see you there!