The Comic Art of Reg Parlett (1983) Had things turned out differently I might have been an artist. There have been artists on both sides of my family. I gained a distinction in Art at A-level and my school recommended that I should go to Art College rather than university, but it was not to be.

The Parlett side of the family specialised in cartooning. . Reg Parlett, the best known representative, was a son of my paternal father's brother Harry. My father Sid, his father Thomas, and I, have all had cartoons published in various places, though never with any great distinction. One of Sid's wartime cartoons (left) references the fact that in WW2 unexploded German bombs were dealt with at Hackney Marshes. ("Half" fare was normally for a child.)

My mother's mother, Gladys Hurst Ladbrooke (a beautiful woman who bore five children but died at 36 in the Spanish flu epidemic) was, I think, the grand-daughter of John Berney Ladbrooke (1803-1879), a founder of the Norwich School of landscape painters. Here's a copy of his Travellers resting by a Cottage in a wooded Landscape (1876).
J B Ladbrooke, Travellers Resting (1876) In fact, according to Artnet.com, he "excelled in the representation of woodland scenery", and, since this is one of my favourite subjects for sketching, I would like to think I perpetuate that family trait.

I can't resist adding this picture of my grandmother Gladys, as I think she's rather lovely.