EXTRACTS: Illustrators Issue 6 © 2013 The Book Palace (96 PAGES in Full edition)

60 Graham Coton David Ashford looks at the life of an illustrator, whose wartime experiences informed his life and art, and fired the imagination of generations of young readers… All images © IPC Media with thanks to the Illustration Art Gallery G raham C oton ’ s graphic illustrations of warfare , were informed by his experiences witnessing the destruction caused by the wartime raids of the German Luftwaffe. As a boy, living close to the Woolwich Army Barracks in London, he had watched the air raid that destroyed the barracks. The havoc he witnessed at the time had a powerful effect on him. It gave him an abhorrence of war and all crimes against humanity. His daughter, Hilary, remembers him talking to her about his thoughts at the end of the war: “You hadn’t been bombed or killed. Life and time was precious, and you were determined to use it to the best of your ability. You must make the most of every day.” During the war, Coton and his elder brother, Lionel, were mostly looked

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