Graham Laidler

(Gavin) Graham Laidler (1908–1940) was born on 4 July 1908 in Newcastle upon Tyne, England at 6 Osborne Road, Jesmond. His father died when Laidler was 13 and the family moved south, eventually settling in Jordans, Buckinghamshire. Laidler had always intended becoming a cartoonist, but as a result of family pressure he enrolled at the London School of Architecture in 1926. After a serious kidney ailment, he concentrated on his cartoons. From 1930-1936 he published a weekly strip "The Twiffs", in the magazine "Woman's Pictorial". In August 1932 had his first acceptance from "Punch" which in 1937 gave him an almost unprecedented exclusive contract in a bid to make sure he was not poached by Graham Greene's new magazine "Night and Day".

Under the name ‘Pont’, Laidler became one of the most original talents in the history of "Punch". He is perhaps most famous for his series on the ‘British Character’ . This was published as a book in 1938. Another book "The British Carry On" (1940) portrayed the atmosphere of the phoney war. A famous example shows a placid scene in a country pub, where the radio is tuned to the German propaganda station: 'Meanwhile in Britain, the entire population, faced by the threat of an invasion, has been flung into a state of complete panic.’ 'At Home', and 'Popular Misconceptions' were also successful series, but by the end of his brief career he was also developing a striking new approach, moving away from the detailed, large drawings to economical, one or two figure sketches with pithy captions. Pont died of poliomyelitis on 23 November 1940.

Laidler was tall, good-looking and regarded by all with affection. He completed four hundred cartoons in his brief career, enough to furnish the material for five books. Bernard Hollowood, fellow cartoonist and later editor of "Punch" wrote the only biographical account of his life and work in his book "Pont" (1969).

Bibliography

* "The British Character" (1938)
* "The British at Home" (1939), with an appreciation by T.H. White
* "The British Carry on" (1940)
* "Pont" (1942), with an introduction by Fougasse
* "Most of us are Absurd" (1946)
* "Pont: an account of the life and work of Graham Laidler (1908-1940), the great Punch artist" (1969), by Bernard Hollowood

References

* Introduction to "Pont: an account of the life and work of Graham Laidler (1908-1940), the great Punch artist" (1969), by Bernard Hollowood