The Jolly Fisherman is a poster created by artist John Hassall in 1908 after he had been commissioned by the Great Northern Railway (GNR). It is regarded as one of the most famous holiday advertisements of all time and is believed to have influenced the success of

Skegness Skegness ( ) is a seaside town and civil parish in the East Lindsey District of Lincolnshire, England. On the Lincolnshire coast of the North Sea, the town is east of Lincoln and north-east of Boston. With a population of 19,579 as of 2011, i ...

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs.) is a county in the East Midlands of England, with a long coastline on the North Sea to the east. It borders Norfolk to the south-east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south-west, Leicestershire ...

as a holiday destination. Hassall was paid 12 Guineas for his work, and the original painting hangs in the town hall at Skegness. The poster depicts a fisherman skipping along the beach, with the slogan "Skegness is SO bracing". There are different versions of the poster, however, the fisherman and the slogan are always part of the design; one such later design, promoted by the

LNER LNER may refer to: * London and North Eastern Railway, a railway company in the United Kingdom from 1923 until 1947 * London North Eastern Railway, a train operating company in the United Kingdom since 2018 * Liquid neutral earthing resistor, a typ ...

, showed the same fishermen design being tugged along the beach by a toddler hanging onto his scarf. John Hassall visited Skegness in 1936, and was quoted as saying " hat Skegnesswas even more bracing and attractive than I had been led to expect." He is now the mascot for Skegness and celebrated his 100th birthday in 2008, and author,

Bill Bryson William McGuire Bryson (; born 8 December 1951) is an American–British journalist and author. Bryson has written a number of nonfiction books on topics including travel, the English language, and science. Born in the United States, he has b ...

, put the image on the front cover of his 2015 book, ''

The Road to Little Dribbling ''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 ...

''. However, the publishers assumed that the image was in the public domain, and so did not obtain permission from the copyright holders, Skegness Town Council. In 2015, the campaign group

PETA Peta or PETA may refer to: Acronym * Pembela Tanah Air, a militia established by the occupying Japanese in Indonesia in 1943 * People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, an American animal rights organization * People Eating Tasty Animals, an ...

(People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals), wrote to the town council suggesting that the image of the fisherman be dropped in favour of one showing a flatfish, with the tagline of "A happy plaice". PETA said that the mascot "evokes images of cruelty to animals". "The Jolly Fisherman" is also the name of places located in

, such as a restaurant, a resort, among others. Jolly the fisherman - close-up (geograph 4315491)

Notes

References

External links

Information from the website of Skegness
Great Northern Railway (Great Britain) 1908 works Skegness Posters {{art-stub