TRIBUTE TO BAIRNSFATHER CARTOONS
DONATED BY SOME OF THE WORLDS TOP CARTOONISTS
To be auctioned in aid of HELP FOR HEROES
on 29 September 2009 the 50th Anniversary of Bairnsfathers death.
Lisa Donnelly, The New Yorker et al
Philippe Bossens, Prize-winning Belgian artist
Matt (Matthew Pritchett, MBE) Daily Telegraph Pocket Cartoonist
Oliver Preston, Chairman Cartoon Art Museum, Field Magazine, Country Life et al
Kurt Vangheluwe, Belgian cartoonist, Talbot Times et al man
Chris Riddell, political cartoonist The Observer, The Economist et al
Nicholas Garland, political cartoonist The Daily Telegraph
Steve Bell, Cartoon Art Trust Prize winner, political cartoonist The Guardian
Michael Cummings, The Daily Express, Punch et al
Peter Schrank, The Independent, New Statesman et al
Jacques Sandron, prolific Belgian cartoonist of many newspapers and magazines
Bryn Parry, Co-Founder Help for Heroes
Martin Rowson, The Guardian, The Daily Mirror et al
JACRI (Christian Jacot) Belgian comic strip, caricature illustrator, commercial artist
Herbert Vanoystaeyn, Frequent prize winner of international and Belgian contests
Dave Chisholm, Sunday Times, Mail on Sunday, Daily Telegraph et al
Well, if you knows of a better ole, go to it.
Ludo Goderis, Belgian artist for De Standaard, Columbia Pictures, Nestle et al
OUR SUPPORTERS
Here we say Thankyou to those who have helped with this project
The Belgian Ambassador of H.M. The King of the Belgians, Jean-Michel Veranneman de Watervliet
The Ambassador has been a positive and enthusiastic supporter of our idea from the moment that we mentioned it to him. He immediately offered his London Residence for the launch of the book and agreed without reservation to write the Foreword. Under his tutelage a series of lectures about Belgium and the First and Second World Wars was held during 2008 and will continue in 2009. More details can be obtained from Ann Willems at ann.willems@diplobel.fed.be
Charles Hewitt, Managing Director of Pen and Sword Books and his team
Without a moments pause Charles agreed to publish the book. His support was clearly essential to the whole idea. We are immensely grateful to him. His company publishes what is probably the most extensive list of military titles available today and fitting in The Best of Fragments from France cannot have been a simple commitment. Everyone at Pen and Sword has been wonderfully responsive and tolerant of our often demanding communications, none more so than our designer David Hemingway. www.pen-and-sword.co.uk
Oliver Preston and Anita OBrian of the Cartoon Museum
Over the last few years we have loaned a series of original Bairnsfather cartoons to the Cartoon Museum whose Curator is Anita. She has always given us a warm welcome despite a heavy work load with a series of exhibitions and when we mentioned the idea of an auction she agreed straight away. Chairman Ollie Preston offered the Museum gratis and volunteered to approach the cartoonists for their drawings and to initiate the invitations to the Auction. http://www.cartoonmuseum.org
The Cartoonists
Without the generous support of the cartoonists there would not be an auction and without the auction the monies raised for Help for Heroes would be greatly reduced. Each contributor has made a very special gesture of donating a piece of their art that links our soldiers over almost 100 years and pays homage to one of their own greats - Bruce Bairnsfather. It is particularly pleasing that not only do we have cartoons from some of the UKs top cartoonists but drawings from America and Belgium as well. We had been looking for 20 cartoons, the majority of which appear in The Best of Fragments From France. That number will be slightly exceeded at the auction and some of the great Belgian cartoons that we have received will be shown in a special Exhibition at Comines-Warneton in October. 2009.
Michel van Pottelberghe, Bibliothcaire-secretaire Socit dHistoire de Comines-Warneton
We first met Michel in 2003 when we put up the memorial to Bruce Bairnsfather on the cottage at St Yvon. He and the Burgomaster Albert Deleu dealt with all the details of the ceremony and arranged the vin dhonneur and celebrations that followed. Once more they have helped with this 50th Anniversary Project and now have a specified local tour around the points of Bairnsfather interest in the area of Plugstreet Wood. www.shcwr.org