EXTRACTS: The Art of Denis McLoughlin © 2013 The Book Palace (272 PAGES in Full edition)

15 B orn April 15, 1918; Father, William (Will), andMother, Edith (maiden name, Hitchen - altered by deed poll at earlier date from Hitchcock, hence the story that the Great Alfred Hitchcock was related. Hitch- cock to Hitchen isn’t much better so why alter it?). Puny and sickly child; sunstroke when about three and a whacking great bump on the head from falling down a year later which left me cross-eyed for many years until the eye specialist got my eyes parted, after years with specs. He parted them just right so I don’t have the distraction of seeing my ears. These setbacks prevented me from starting school until I was seven, around the time when brother Colin was born (Nov. 2nd 1925). First school was Miss Dearden’s private school but this lasted only about a year for, after that time, I seemed only to have learned that “the” spelled Eva - try it this way “the(e) the” and it sounds kinda like Eva. In 1926 Dad took me to the Wembley Exhibition and I’ve still got a com- memorative spoon to prove it. Maw had evidently stayed home to look after Colin. Dad, a mornings-by-appointment-only hair specialist could spend plenty of time with me and Colin. Schooling from eight to eleven years was at Sunninghill School, which was barely five minutes walk from our home at 292 Derby Street, Bolton. The following three years were spent at White Bank Central School, which was a couple of miles away, so I was bought a £4.19.6. Hercules cycle. Colin took over the cycle when I won a scholarship to the Bolton School of Art in 1932 (now the College of Art so I missed out being a college kid). Over these school years I was plagued with asthma, which was usually at its worst at weekends. Colin referred to these attacks as “Denis’s puffier bouts”. I spent most of my spare time drawing and paint- ing or at other creative hobbies such as making ‘Pepper’s Ghost Shows’ and cinemas for Colin. The latter was a long roll of tracing paper with a series of separate drawings that were on a reel that could be turned to expose one pic. at a time, behind the cinema screen, cut out in the front of the box contain- ing the reel and take-up reel. Over all these years I kept a goodly variety of pets; grass, garter, dice and aesculapian snakes, green and wall lizards, tortoise and terrapins, hedgehog, toads, rabbits and guinea pigs. All at one time, so the yard and back kitchen were full of life. Dad, who was an excellent carpenter, made all the living snakes, ladders and picture shows a childhood in bolton FACING PAGE: “Denis the Menace” The four year old McLoughlin. ABOVE: The artist as prize winner of a “Beautiful Baby” contest.