Martin Honeysett (20 May 1943 – 21 January 2015) was an English cartoonist and illustrator.
Early life
Honeysett was born in
Hereford
Hereford () is a cathedral city, civil parish and the county town of Herefordshire, England. It lies on the River Wye, approximately east of the border with Wales, south-west of Worcester and north-west of Gloucester. With a population ...
. When he was two years old, his parents moved to London. He attended
Selhurst Grammar School in
Croydon
Croydon is a large town in south London, England, south of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Croydon, a local government district of Greater London. It is one of the largest commercial districts in Greater London, with an extensi ...
and his art teacher there was
Geoffrey Dickinson, who later became deputy cartoon editor of ''
Punch
Punch commonly refers to:
* Punch (combat), a strike made using the hand closed into a fist
* Punch (drink), a wide assortment of drinks, non-alcoholic or alcoholic, generally containing fruit or fruit juice
Punch may also refer to:
Places
* Pun ...
''.
Honeysett went on to study for a year at
Croydon School of Art
Croydon College is a large further and higher education college located in Croydon, within the London Borough of Croydon. Its origins can be traced to a School of Art that was established in 1868, which subsequently merged with Croydon Polytechnic ...
(1960–61).
He then worked briefly in a London animation studio, and then spent several years abroad both in New Zealand as a
lumberjack
Lumberjacks are mostly North American workers in the logging industry who perform the initial harvesting and transport of trees for ultimate processing into forest products. The term usually refers to loggers in the era (before 1945 in the Unite ...
and in Canada before returning to England to work as a bus-driver for
London Transport.
Career
Honeysett sold his first cartoon to the ''
Daily Mirror
The ''Daily Mirror'' is a British national daily tabloid. Founded in 1903, it is owned by parent company Reach plc. From 1985 to 1987, and from 1997 to 2002, the title on its masthead was simply ''The Mirror''. It had an average daily print ...
'' in 1969 and his first illustrations began to be published in ''
Punch
Punch commonly refers to:
* Punch (combat), a strike made using the hand closed into a fist
* Punch (drink), a wide assortment of drinks, non-alcoholic or alcoholic, generally containing fruit or fruit juice
Punch may also refer to:
Places
* Pun ...
'' and ''
Private Eye
''Private Eye'' is a British fortnightly satire, satirical and current affairs (news format), current affairs news magazine, founded in 1961. It is published in London and has been edited by Ian Hislop since 1986. The publication is widely r ...
''. His success in these popular satirical magazines raised his profile as a cartoonist and he soon began to have his work published in other publications such as the ''
London Evening Standard
The ''Evening Standard'', formerly ''The Standard'' (1827–1904), also known as the ''London Evening Standard'', is a local free daily newspaper in London, England, published Monday to Friday in tabloid format.
In October 2009, after be ...
'', ''
The Observer
''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the w ...
'', ''
The Sunday Telegraph
''The Sunday Telegraph'' is a British broadsheet newspaper, founded in February 1961 and published by the Telegraph Media Group, a division of Press Holdings.
It is the sister paper of ''The Daily Telegraph
''The Daily Telegraph'', kn ...
'', ''
Radio Times
''Radio Times'' (currently styled as ''RadioTimes'') is a British weekly listings magazine devoted to television and radio programme schedules, with other features such as interviews, film reviews and lifestyle items. Founded in May 1923 by J ...
'' and, later, ''
The Oldie
''The Oldie'' is a British monthly magazine written for older people "as a light-hearted alternative to a press obsessed with youth and celebrity", according to its website. The magazine was launched in 1992 by Richard Ingrams, who was its edi ...
''.
He illustrated several books including
Sue Townsend
Susan Lillian Townsend, FRSL (née Johnstone, 2 April 194610 April 2014), was an English writer and humorist whose work encompasses novels, plays and works of journalism. She was best known for creating the character Adrian Mole.
After writing ...
's ''
The Queen and I''
and
Dick King-Smith
Ronald Gordon King-Smith OBE (27 March 1922 – 4 January 2011), was an English writer of children's books, primarily using the pen name Dick King-Smith. He is best known for ''The Sheep-Pig'' (1983). It was adapted as the movie ''Babe'' (1995 ...
's ''H.Prince''. He collaborated with noted humorous writers and comic artists such as
Ivor Cutler
Ivor Cutler (born Isadore Cutler, 15 January 1923 – 3 March 2006) was a Scottish poet, singer, musician, songwriter, artist and humorist. He became known for his regular performances on BBC radio, and in particular his numerous sessions recorde ...
— providing the illustrations for his poetry books ''Gruts'' (1986), ''Fremsley'' and ''Life in a Scotch Sitting Room'' (1984) — and
Monty Python
Monty Python (also collectively known as the Pythons) were a British comedy troupe who created the sketch comedy television show '' Monty Python's Flying Circus'', which first aired on the BBC in 1969. Forty-five episodes were made over four ...
members
Terry Jones
Terence Graham Parry Jones (1 February 1942 – 21 January 2020) was a Welsh comedian, director, historian, actor, writer and member of the Monty Python comedy team.
After graduating from Oxford University with a degree in English, Jones and ...
and
Michael Palin
Sir Michael Edward Palin (; born 5 May 1943) is an English actor, comedian, writer, television presenter, and public speaker. He was a member of the Monty Python comedy group. Since 1980, he has made a number of travel documentaries.
Palin w ...
— working on ''
Bert Fegg's Nasty Book for Boys and Girls'',
along with his wife Lolly and illustrators
Frank Bellamy
Frank Bellamy (21 May 1917 Khoury, George. ''True Brit: Celebrating The Comic Book Artists Of England'' (TwoMorrows Publishing, 2004). – 5 July 1976) was a British comics artist, best known for his work on the ''Eagle'' comic, for which h ...
and
Paul Buckle
Paul John Buckle (born 16 December 1970) is an English football manager. He is currently a technical advisor at Hartford Athletic of the USL and technical advisor to Landon Donovan at San Diego Loyal. Prior to this, he coached the U23s for Sout ...
.
He also published collections of his own work, including ''Honeysett at Home'' (1976), ''The Motor Show Book of Humour'' (1978), ''The Not Another Book of Old Photographs Book'' (1981), ''Microphobia: How to Survive Your Computer and the Technological Revolution'' (1982), ''Fit for Nothing'' (1983), ''The Joy of Headaches'' (1984), ''Animal Nonsense Rhymes'' (1984) and ''The Best of Honeysett'' (1985).
Honeysett's work was noted for its
black humour
Black comedy, also known as dark comedy, morbid humor, or gallows humor, is a style of comedy that makes light of subject matter that is generally considered taboo, particularly subjects that are normally considered serious or painful to discu ...
, acerbic wit and sardonic, grotesque portrayal of characters who exemplified the cruelty, greed and stupidity of modern life. His
caricature
A caricature is a rendered image showing the features of its subject in a simplified or exaggerated way through sketching, pencil strokes, or other artistic drawings (compare to: cartoon). Caricatures can be either insulting or complimentary, a ...
s ranged from "moth-eaten grannies in wrinkled stockings, slippers and curlers, to slobbish youths with multiple piercings, baseball caps askew and falling-down jeans", all drawn in his distinctive "spidery" style of illustration. Honeysett stated that it was his intention to show "venom and anger" in his cartoons.
Honeysett was the recipient of several international awards at cartoon festivals in Europe and Japan, and in 2005 he was made visiting professor of cartooning for two years at
Kyoto Seika University
is a private university in Iwakura, Kyoto, Japan. The school's predecessor was founded in 1968, and it was chartered as a university in 1979.
The school is noted for its faculties of manga and anime, and being involved in the teaching and ...
, Japan, the only university in the world to have a faculty of cartooning. His works have been displayed at various public art galleries and illustrations by Honeysett are held in the collections of
The Cartoon Museum
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...
and the
Victoria and Albert Museum
The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...
in London.
Martin Honeysett died at the age of 71 in January 2015.
Personal life
![MH vacant](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d0/MH_vacant.jpg)
Whilst living and working in Canada, Honeysett met his first wife, Lolly, whom he married in 1970. Together they had two children, Dominic and Sophie. Martin and Lolly divorced in 1988 before he met his common law partner Penny in 1996.
[
Honeysett was known for occasionally anarchic behaviour and practical jokes. At one notorious event during the party thrown for ''Private Eye''’s 21st birthday, he reportedly threw a large cake over the head of the cartoonist ]Michael Ffolkes
Michael ffolkes (6 June 1925 – 18 October 1988), born Brian Davis, was a British illustrator and cartoonist most famous for his work on the Peter Simple column in ''The Daily Telegraph''. He also worked for ''Punch'' and ''Playboy''.
Li ...
.[
]
References
External links
Official Martin Honeysett site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Honeysett, Martin
2015 deaths
1943 births
People from Hereford
English cartoonists
Private Eye contributors
Alumni of Croydon College
Punch (magazine) cartoonists
English humorists
English caricaturists