A BUSY week in the equestrian world lies ahead, what with Badminton, The King’s coronation - and the 100th birthday of Norman Thelwell (1923-2004), widely acclaimed as the most popular cartoonist in Britain. Nearly two decades after his death, we can only imagine the fun he would have had in caricaturing next week’s momentous events.
Thelwell’s hilarious vignettes of recalcitrant ponies, and the battle of wills between them and their equally stubborn little riders, have enduring appeal both in and outside the horse world. Somehow, Thelwell has the measure of the Pony Club pony in a way that any horseman can thoroughly relate, while capturing the non-equestrian audience in humanising hoity-toity riders and exposing some of their vulnerabilities.
“He was frightened by and endeared to horses in equal measure"
NORMAN THELWELL’S DAUGHTER, PENNY JONES
JB Boothroyd, assistant editor at while Thelwell was its cartoonist, used “Thelwell has convinced me, and I can never be too grateful, that the horse person is…even less sure of himself than I am.
