Peyton: The World's Greatest Yachting Cartoonist

Price: £16.99

We have been blessed by having some wonderful British cartoonists. I can remember as a young man being reasonably pleased to go to the dentist but only because they had the latest copies of Punch in the waiting room. Every Christmas we gave my father the Giles Annual and all the family enjoyed Giles rib-tickling cartoons with humour in every element. Like Peyton, Carl Giles was, of course, also an East Anglian sailor. The other great facility we have in the UK is the ability to laugh at ourselves. When I first saw Mike Peyton’s cartoons in the Practical Boat Owner in the 1960’s I was an instant convert. Every cartoon was a winner especially since I had done it, had it happen to me, or had seen it happen to my friends. The cartoons were cut out and stuck in the workshop and the loo.

            However, I had no idea of about the cartoonist himself until I read Dick Durham’s book which provides an excellent insight into the man, his family and his history. It is a biography that is well told and the pages are liberally sprinkled with some famous cartoons and colour photographs. The book pays particular attention to the early years of Mike Peyton’s life enhanced by many quotes from Mike’s long suffering wife Kath Peyton who is herself a well-known author of children’s books.

            The book is highly enjoyable but if I have one reservation it is the phrase in the book’s title “the worlds greatest” which seems more appropriate for a posturing pop-star or a footballer not a well-loved cartoonist. However, as I look back at some of the cartoons that have made me laugh so much; such as the wife asking the husband scraping the bottom of the boat, “How’s your bad back?” or the member of the crew hanging from the spinnaker pole being asked, ” What are you doing out there?”,  perhaps the phrase is appropriate after all.