This post follows directly on from Part One: https://topseyturveydom.wordpress.com/2019/10/04/how-gilbert-became-bab-part-one/ We left our hero first using the artist’s pseudonym “Bab” in order to conceal from his employers, the Education Office, that he had drawn a cartoon criticising their policy. In March the following year a column appeared in Fun entitled “The Education Office, Again” which laid […]
Author Archives: andrewcrowther
How Gilbert Became Bab (Part One)
Recently, I’ve been tweeting cartoons by W.S. Gilbert under the not wholly accurate hashtag #DailyBab. Why Bab? Because that was the artist signature that Gilbert used for his cartoons for the majority of his career. Thusly: The confusion begins, however, when I start to post images that use a different signature, such as this one: […]
Dog’s Breakfast
Let’s talk about Brexit. We all recall how it started. David Cameron, way back when he was Prime Minister (remember that?), agreed to hold a referendum on membership of the European Union, in order to unite his party and lay that whole silly business to rest. Well, as we know, it didn’t turn out quite […]
Good Omens, or, What’s the worst that could happen?
There are certain books that, if they did not in literal fact save my life, felt as if they did. Back in 1987, I had just started at University, and I happened by chance (ah, but was it?) to buy an omnibus volume of novels by the almost forgotten Victorian comic writer F. Anstey. It […]
A Rhyme for “Month”
W.S. Gilbert is one of my heroes. You’ll have to accept this from the start, or we will never get on. The Adam of modern lyric-writing, as Alan Jay (“My Fair Lady”) Lerner called him, he was simply one of the best – from a literary-dramatic point of view, at any rate. I’m going to […]
Allow Me To Explain….
This is going to be a very short introduction, I think. My name is Andrew Crowther, and I’m a writer, of sorts. I’ve even had a couple of books published. Here’s one of them; it’s called Gilbert of Gilbert and Sullivan: https://www.thehistorypress.co.uk/publication/gilbert-of-gilbert-and-sullivan/9780752468600/ Oh, yes. I have written about Gilbert of Gilbert and Sullivan; a lot. […]
