Timothy Birdsall (10 May 1936 – 10 June 1963) was an English
cartoonist.
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Life and work
Birdsall was born in
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
. While an undergraduate at
Christ's College, Cambridge, he illustrated ''
Granta
''Granta'' is a literary magazine and publisher in the United Kingdom whose mission centres on its "belief in the power and urgency of the story, both in fiction and non-fiction, and the story’s supreme ability to describe, illuminate and ma ...
'' and formed part of the late 1950s talented set which included those later to become household names, such as
Peter Cook
Peter Edward Cook (17 November 1937 – 9 January 1995) was an English actor, comedian, satirist, playwright and screenwriter. He was the leading figure of the British satire boom of the 1960s, and he was associated with the anti-establishme ...
and
Ian McKellen.
His first job was with ''
The Sunday Times
''The Sunday Times'' is a British newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News UK, w ...
'', where he did the 'Little Cartoon' on the front page. He later became more widely known for his appearances on the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
''. He was sometimes shown behind a glass panel improvising drawings on it with a paintbrush though he usually worked with an ink-marker on paper. He also contributed to ''
''. He regularly caricatured the then prime minister
, who issued a writ against him. Birdsall's cartoons satirised the
, besides the Church of England and rearguard Britain's faulty attempts to emerge into the 'swinging Sixties'. Illness prevented him from doing more than about twenty of these political cartoons, and he succumbed to
, aged 27. He was survived by his widow, the actress
...