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

80 end of his life he tended to shy away from social occasions, and seldom attended private views of his exhibitions. He was one of the most versatile artists of the latter part of the 20th Century. His career began in his teens when he designed bespoke car coachwork, progressed to valuable counter-sabotage work with MI5 in World War II, where his drawing skills were utilised, then came considerable success as a commercial illustrator, eventually culminating in a career in fine art. His work is characterized for its skill, verve, and the intensity of light and colour. He was at ease working in any medium, so his work featured oil, gouache, watercolour and mixed media. But it was his wonderful eye for colour that set him apart. He was still actively painting and exploring colour, line and style right to the end of his life. Today, in his Gloucestershire studio, beautiful unfinished pictures adorn the walls and sit on his trusty easel. He was born in London in 1919. His father, Donald Fish, who was a policeman, later achieved some fame as head of security at the British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC), now British Airways, and his book ‘Airline Detective’ published in 1962, with ABOVE: Interior view and cover to December 1952 edition of Flight , featuring the Bristol Brittania turbo-prop airliner. FACING PAGE: Fish’s love of aeronautics was given full vent in his covers for Flight and The Aeroplane magazine.