Featured in Artists & Illustrators magazine

I’m featured in the November issue (published in September) of the magazine I worked at for about seven years around the turn of the century. Some time in 1997 I submitted an idea for an article about ArtLETS (a community trading scheme for artists) to the Artists & Illustrators editor, Laura Gascoigne. When I hand-delivered the finished article shortly after, she asked if I’d be interested in a very part time job at its offices, which were then at the rough end of King’s Cross (King’s Cross didn’t have anything but rough ends at that time).

A few days’ work a month eventually became many more, which turned into a job with a title – editorial assistant, then deputy editor. A new editor, Jim Manson, came and then eventually, in 2001, when he moved on, I became editor. There were things about the job I liked more than others, but I made great lasting friendships there. It was a time when the annual four-day Artists & Illustrators Exhibition was still taking place at the Business Design Centre, Islington, legendary figures such as Philip Thompson and Roger Bates worked on the magazine’s agony column, and the publisher Ben Lane joined. It could be a difficult job but there was so much laughter.

The magazine has new owners now, and much has changed, but it’s good to be back in its pages talking about my books and my drawing practice to its editor Niki Browes. Thanks to her for featuring me. And thanks to photographers John Iona and Colin Bowling (the regular A&I studio photographer back in the day) for their images included in the magazine.

Find out more at the Artists and Illustrators website: www.artistsandillustrators.co.uk