Britain's Best Political Cartoons 2024

Dr Tim Benson is Britain's leading authority on political cartoons. He runs the Political Cartoon Gallery and Café which is located near the River Thames in Putney. He has produced numerous books on the history of cartoons, including Giles's War, Churchill in Caricature, Low and the Dictators, The Cartoon Century: Modern Britain through the Eyes of Its Cartoonists, Drawing the Curtain: The Cold War in Cartoons and Over the Top: A Cartoon History of Australia at War.

Britain’s Best Political Cartoons 2024 offers a superbly sharp and wickedly witty record of a year of landmark landslides, Trumpian trials, Post Office revelations, and one soggy Sunak. This collection features the work of Peter Brookes, Steve Bell, Morten Morland, Nicola Jennings, Christian Adams, Dave Brown, Ella Baron and many more of the nation’s finest cartoonists, alongside captions from Britain's leading cartoon expert. It’s a magnificent record of twelve months of political pandemonium and savage satire, and the perfect gift for friends, family, or just for yourself.

Churchill: A Life in Cartoons

A welcome and important addition to this genre—especially given that it contains more than 300 cartoons, most of which have not been utilised in previously published books . . . With great skill Benson has created a highly readable, entertaining, and politically insightful description for each cartoon. The descriptions are crisp yet sufficiently robust in facts, quotes, and background for the reader to comprehend fully the message and impact of each cartoon . . . A great strength of the book is, in fact, the presentation of a large selection of previously uncollected cartoons . . . All who enjoy studying the depiction of Churchill in political cartoons should buy and read this delightful book.

'A welcome and important addition to this genre—especially given that it contains more than 300 cartoons, most of which have not been utilised in previously published books . . . With great skill Benson has created a highly readable, entertaining, and politically insightful description for each cartoon . . . Buy and read this delightful book.' INTERNATIONAL CHURCHILL SOCIETY 
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Following an unrivalled political career that spanned a remarkable sixty years and reached both the heights and the depths of political fortune, Sir Winston Churchill undoubtedly became the world's most caricatured politician of all time. From entering Parliament in 1900 through to his retirement in 1964, Winston Churchill in Cartoons will chart Churchill's illustrious and tumultuous political career through the work of leading cartoonists from around the world. 
 
Through these cartoons there developed very contrary views of Churchill; the glorious cigar-chomping wartime leader and the flawed politician. In America he was adored by cartoonists, while in Nazi Germany and in the post-war Soviet Union he was, unsurprisingly, painted as a bumbling buffoon. After his passing in 1965, great contemporary cartoonists including Peter Brookes, Steve Bell, Matt and Gerald Scarfe, continued to use him as a benchmark for the world leaders that followed. 
 
Featuring the work of the some of the greatest cartoonists of all time and providing a new perspective of an iconic figure, Winston Churchill in Cartoons will include the very best and wittiest portrayals of Churchill the glorious wartime leader, controversial politician, and emblematic British statesman.

Britain's Best Political Cartoons 2023

Bringing much-needed humour to another chaotic year in politics, Britain's Best Political Cartoons 2023 offers a tour of the most high-profile, notorious and absurd news stories of the year, as seen through the eyes of our nation's finest satirists. This collection features the work of Peter Brookes, Steve Bell, Morten Morland, Nicola Jennings, Christian Adams, Dave Brown, Brian Adcock and many more, alongside captions from Britain's leading cartoon expert. The result is a sharply observed, stunningly creative and side-splittingly funny guide to another year like no other. It is the perfect gift for friends, family, or just for yourself. 
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'A wonderful book . . . A beautiful thing to look at . . . Our brilliant cartoonists show there is still something to satirise . . . A great stocking filler.' Giles Coren 
 
'A blockbuster collection of the year's funniest political cartoons . . . [compiled by] Britain's leading authority on political cartoons . . . It made us chuckle.' Eamonn Holmes

Britain's Best Political Cartoons 2022

In Britain's Best Political Cartoons 2022 the nation's finest satirists turn their eyes and their pens to the biggest, funniest and most poignant news stories of the year so far. Bringing much needed humour to a tumultuous year in politics, this companion features the work of Peter Brookes, Steve Bell, Morten Morland, Nicola Jennings, Christian Adams, Dave Brown, Brian Adcock and many more, alongside captions from Britain's leading cartoon expert. The result is a razor-sharp, witty and essential companion to another year like no other. 
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'A wonderful book . . . A beautiful thing to look at . . . Our brilliant cartoonists show there is still something to satirise . . . A great stocking filler.' Giles Coren 
 
'A blockbuster collection of the year's funniest political cartoons . . . [compiled by] Britain's leading authority on political cartoons . . . It made us chuckle.' Eamonn Holmes

Britain's Best Political Cartoons 2021

Bringing much-needed humour to a chaotic year, this full-colour cartoon companion features the most hilarious and incisive cartoons by Steve Bell, Peter Brookes, Nicola Jennings, Morten Morland, Patrick Blower and many more of the nation's finest cartoonists. 
 
2021 is turning out to be another extraordinary year, from Covid crises and vaccine victories to lockdown learning, haddock havoc and Capitol coups. But, then, it has also been a very familiar story of Brexit blunders and Trumpian tantrums. The nation's greatest cartoonists have recorded it all with searing wit and astonishing creativity. Britain's Best Political Cartoons 2021 brings together cartoons from the nation's finest satirists, along with captions from Britain's leading cartoon expert, to tell the story of another tumultuous twelve months.

As a compendium that will have you saying, "Oh my God, was that only this year?" quite literally over and over and over again, it can't be beaten. I have to say, having made my way through a second collection, I'm very much looking forward to next year's . . . Rapidly becoming one of the literary highlights of my year.

A wonderful book . . . A beautiful thing to look at . . . Our brilliant cartoonists show there is still something to satirise . . . A great stocking filler.

A blockbuster collection of the year's funniest political cartoons . . . [compiled by] Britain's leading authority on political cartoons . . . It made us chuckle.

Thankfully, Britain's best satirists were around to turn their eyes and their pens to all [the UK's] events and more - and much of their best work features in this years title.

Bringing much-needed humour to a chaotic year, this cartoon companion features the most hilarious and incisive cartoons by Steve Bell, Peter Brookes, Nicola Jennings and many more of the nation's finest cartoonists. 
 
2021 is turning out to be another extraordinary year, from Covid crises and vaccine victories to lockdown learning, haddock havoc and Capitol coups. But, then, it has also been a very familiar story of Brexit blunders and Trumpian tantrums. The nation's greatest cartoonists have recorded it all with searing wit and astonishing creativity. Britain's Best Political Cartoons 2021 brings together cartoons from the nation's finest satirists, along with captions from Britain's leading cartoon expert, to tell the story of another tumultuous twelve months.

Britain's Best Political Cartoons 2020

A hilarious companion to the year's political turmoil, featuring the work of Steve Bell, Peter Brookes, Nicola Jennings and many more.

**BRITAIN'S BEST POLITICAL CARTOONS 2021 IS OUT NOW** 
 
2020 will forever be remembered as the year of coronavirus: twelve months in which we collectively forgot about Brexit, to turn our attention to the NHS, furloughs and social distancing. All of us, that is, apart from Britain's political cartoonists. Here, our finest satirists turn their eyes to Covid and much more: from the never-ending Brexit psychodrama to the Labour leadership election to the next US president. Featuring the work of Steve Bell, Peter Brookes and Nicola Jennings, Britain's Best Political Cartoons is your trusty companion to another year of turmoil, tantrums and Trump.

If you need a pick-me-up to see the lighter side of the year, this is the book for you.

Surprisingly fun, surprisingly challenging, surprisingly refreshing.

A cartoon companion to an unprecedented year in politics. 
 
 2020 will forever be remembered as the year of coronavirus: twelve months in which we collectively forgot about Brexit, to turn our attention to the NHS, furloughs and social distancing. All of us, that is, apart from Britain's political cartoonists. Here, our finest satirists turn their eyes to Covid and much more: from the never-ending Brexit psychodrama to the Labour leadership election to the next US president. Featuring the work of Steve Bell, Peter Brookes and Nicola Jennings, Britain's Best Political Cartoons is your trusty companion to another year of turmoil, tantrums and Trump.

Britain’s Best Political Cartoons 2019

A hilarious companion to the year’s political turmoil, featuring the work of Martin Rowson, Steve Bell, Peter Brookes, Nicola Jennings and many more . . .

A generous dose of wit to see you through the next 12 months of political pain

A hilarious companion to the year’s political turmoil, featuring the work of Martin Rowson, Steve Bell, Peter Brookes, Nicola Jennings and many more . . . 
 
2019 was the year of Brexit, obviously. But it was also the year that Donald Trump went haywire over Huawei, Theresa May got bounced by the backstop, Boris Johnson was hoisted into high office, and the country was corralled into a chaotic Christmas election. In Britain’s Best Political Cartoons 2019, our very finest satirists skewer everything from Kremlin collusion to no-deal confusion, offering a riotous ride through the last twelve months. And did we mention Brexit?

A cartoon celebration

How to be British

Brexit getting you down? Dip into this hilarious cartoon guide to life in Britain . . .

Not sure why everyone keeps talking about the weather? 
Can’t tell your Earl Grey from your English breakfast? 
Feeling a wobble in your stiff upper lip? 
 
It sounds like you need a crash course in How to be British. This handy pocket guide brings together 130 classic cartoons covering all the crucial elements of life on our sceptred isle: from queuing under absolutely any circumstances, to avoiding eye contact on the bus, to tutting and saying ‘Honestly’ when it starts raining. 
 
Whether you’re a born-and-bred Brit or the most transient of tourists, How to be British is your one-stop remedy to Brexit blues. At least it’s better than chatting about the weather again.

Britain’s Best Political Cartoons 2018

Another blockbuster collection of the year’s funniest political cartoons, featuring the wittiest drawings from The Times, Guardian, Telegraph, Economist and more

Thankfully, Britain’s best satirists were around to turn their eyes and their pens to all [the UK’s] events and more – and much of their best work features in this years title.

Features all the year’s finest works from Peter Brookes, Morten Morland, Steve Bell and all the rest.

A blockbuster collection of the year’s funniest political cartoons . . . [compiled by] Britain’s leading authority on political cartoons . . . It made us chuckle.

A fascinating introductory essay . . . [The book] contains a couple of hundred cartoons which suggest that the political cartoon is in rude health.

A look back over the year through the satirical art of political cartooning . . . A very timely book.

Features some of our sharpest satirists turning their acerbic gaze on the events of the past year.

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A blockbuster collection of the year’s funniest political cartoons, featuring the work of Mac, Steve Bell, Peter Brookes and many more . . . 
 
2018 was the year that Brexit got serious, royals got married, football got (briefly) feverish, and Trump got transformed into a giant baby blimp. In Britain’s Best Political Cartoons 2018, our very finest satirists turn their eyes and their pens to all these events and more, offering an incisive and often hilarious tour through a tumultuous twelve months.

Giles's War

The Second World War as seen through the eyes of one of Britain's best-loved cartoonists.

[Giles’s] genius was capturing the views of ordinary folk . . . Wonderful cartoons.

[The] secrets of much-loved wartime cartoonist Giles [are] revealed in a new book . . . The cartoons that had kept the Reynold’s News readers laughing, including many of heroic Russians such as an amiable Joseph Stalin propping up a bar, or a doughty little peasant woman bringing in a clump of roped-up captured German soldiers – have been collected for the first time in Giles’s War.

The cartoons offer a vivid portrayal of the war, of Giles’s formative years and of a brief chapter in the history of co-operative journalism, when it boasted a future icon among its ranks.

A new book of WWII cartoons by Giles shows why his humour was so popular at the time . . . Giles’s efforts can still surprise and even raise a smile.

This treasurable collection includes more than 100 cartoons that have not been seen for 75 years.

On our bookshelves there is always somewhere that is forever Gilesland.

Dr Tim Benson is Britain's leading authority on political cartoons. He runs The Political Cartoon Gallery and Café which is located near the River Thames in Putney. He is the editor of the annual collection Britain's Best Political cartoons.He has also written numerous books on political cartoonists, including Churchill in Caricature, Low and the Dictators, The Cartoon Century: Modern Britain through the Eyes of Its Cartoonists, Drawing the Curtain: The Cold War in Cartoons and Over the Top: A Cartoon History of Australia at War.

Few contemporaries captured Britain’s indomitable wartime spirit as well or as wittily as the cartoonist Carl Giles. Now, for the first time, the very best of the cartoons he produced between 1939 and 1945 are brought together, including many that have not seen the light of day in over 75 years. 
 
As a young cartoonist at Reynold’s News and then the Daily Express, Giles's work provided a crucial morale boost – and much-needed laughs – to a population suffering daily privations and danger, and Giles's War shows why. Here are his often hilarious takes on the great events of the war – from the Fall of France, via D-Day, to the final Allied victory – but also his wryly amusing depictions of ordinary people in extraordinary times, living in bombed-out streets, dealing with food shortages, coping with blackouts, railing against bureaucracy and everyday annoyances. It's a brilliantly funny chronicle of our nation’s finest hour, as well as a fitting tribute to one of our greatest cartoonists.

Tim Benson

Britain’s Best Political Cartoons 2025 offers a superbly sharp and wickedly witty visual record of a year of Labour tribulations, Trumpian endeavours, economic tremors, and almost ubiquitous political gaffes and missteps. This collection features the work of Peter Brookes, Morten Morland, Nicola Jennings, Christian Adams, Dave Brown, Ella Baron and many more of the nation’s finest cartoonists, alongside captions from Britain's leading cartoon expert. It’s a magnificent record of twelve months of political pandemonium and savage satire, and the perfect gift for friends, family, or just for yourself.

Tim Benson

Books by Tim Benson

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