“It is a proud Private Eye tradition to take cartoons, er, seriously. They are vital to the success of the magazine, and I should make it clear to any cartoonists reading this that I mean that as a sincere compliment rather than as a promise of a pay rise.”

"One of the magical things about cartoonists is they can take the saddest of things - like Covid 19 - and make light of them without leaving a bad taste in the mouth. They are working on a different, comic, plane where nothing should ever be taken too seriously. Cartoons are little escapes - not just from the articles in The Oldie, which, brilliant as they are, take longer to read than a one line caption. But they are also escapes from the world, a flight into fantasy: a world where dinosaurs talk, and cavemen have a sophisticated, modern take on Stone Age life."

As a teenager and student, confronting the complications and horrors of the world the satirists helped to rebalance me, with dry laughter. Yet better still is the gag-cartoonists’ satire of ordinariness, the human predicament skewered in a few skilful lines. I would never live in a house long without a few originals on the wall, making me smile as I walk by, and a collection of masters from Tidy and Mac and Posy and Searle and Stott on the bookshelves. They sustain me, and will until I die. Thank you all."

The invitation to be a patron of the PCO is not only an honour but also a chance to beg for mercy for the many cartoon crimes I committed in the name of OINK! I’m talking 'Dr Mooney - He’s Completely Looney'...'When Dinosaurs Ruled The Earth’...and 'Harry The Head'. Lest we forget, Harry was simply that. A head. With no body. A character I engineered simply because I couldn't draw bodies properly. It all unravelled somewhat when I realised that I couldn’t draw heads properly either. But still I continued. Shameless. Thank you for this kind invitation and I hope to be in a position to face your combined indignation over a glass in the near future. (Though of course I’m not going to buy you one.)