"The Best of Brockbank".

“The Best of Brockbank”. 96 pp. 10 in.x 6 1/2 in. (David & Charles Ltd., South Devon House, Newton Abbot, Devon. £2.95).

Brockbank’s admirers, of those inimitable motoring cartoons, so meticulously and meaningly drawn, cannot have enough of his work and it is therefore excellent that his prolific output has already appeared in at least eight volumes. Now we have this one, slim but appealing, to round off the former “Brockbanks”, such as “Round the Bend” and “Up the Straight”, etc. The cartoons it contains are from Motor and Punch and have therefore been seen previously by readers of these journals but, as I have said, those avid for Brockbank will be glad to add more of his work to their bookshelves.

This artist’s versatility is well portrayed by the dust-jacket of this, his latest book, which depicts a tiller-steered veteran Oldsmobile and a Rolls-Royce hearse, both in ridiculous but just possible situations. Inside it is all there, those cartoons with the hallmark of Brock, and I go along with Richard Bensted-Smith who contributes the Introduction, namely that I will not try to decide which is “The best of Brockbank”. Incidentally, I have more than a passing interest in this famous cartoonist’s work because there used to be a time, long ago, when I would see a funny motoring or human situation, drop the great man a p.c., and he would often translate what I had witnessed into comedy. I received no payment but was put on the Punch free-list, Brock being at the time a member of the famous round-table. Then Punch decided it could no longer afford to send out a free copy, so now I see it only very occasionally on waiting-room tables and the magic is over. But I wonder if I inspired any of the many cartoons, all of them typical and enjoyable, in this little volume ?—W.B.