Michael Heath (cartoonist)

Biography

Heath was born, on 13 October 1935, in Bloomsbury, London. His father, George Heath, was also a cartoonist of boy's adventure comics, a job he detested. Heath's relationship with both his parents was distant and neither birthdays nor Christmas were celebrated. During the war Heath was evacuated to his grandmother's house in Torcross, in Devon. In 1947 the family moved to Brighton. While studying at art college, which he loathed, Heath sold his first cartoons to Melody Maker for two guineas. He later got work illustrating album covers for Decca Records and drew a strip called "Nelly Know-all" for the Women's Sunday Mirror. By the 1960s he was part of the Soho social crowd that included Jeffrey Bernard, Lucian Freud and Francis Bacon.

His work has appeared in numerous British publications including Punch, Lilliput, the Evening Standard, The Evening News, The Guardian, The Spectator, The Independent, The Sunday Times, The Mail on Sunday, and Private Eye; all his work is signed simply as "HEATH".

He has been cartoon editor of The Spectator magazine since 1991, and the cartoons which are published have not always adhered to the magazine's conservative politics. Heath's own political cartoons have also appeared in The Independent newspaper.

In August 2016 he was the guest for the long-running BBC Radio 4 programme Desert Island Discs. His favourite choice was "Criss Cross" by Thelonious Monk. His other choices were "Dance of the Infidels" by Bud Powell, "Teddy Bears' Picnic" by Henry Hall & His Orchestra, "Max In An Air Raid (I Never Slept A Wink All Night)" by Max Miller, "Take a Step" by Jack Buchanan, "All the Things You Are" by The Quintet, "Funny Face" by Fred and Adele Astaire, with Julian Jones & His Orchestra and "Lover" by Charlie Parker. His book choice was The Diary of a Nobody by George and Weedon Grossmith and his luxury item was an artist's painting set.

Heath has been married twice, the first time for 24 years and the second time for 18 years, with a long relationship with a third woman between the two. He has kept a pet dog, named Charlie Parker, for many years.

Great Bores of Today

Great Bores of Today was a long-running series in Private Eye. Each has a single frame, in which some immediately recognizable species of modern cultural bore is seen in his or her natural environs, haranguing bystanders, reporters, the viewer, or imagined listeners. Underneath is a lengthy chunk of the logorrhea that the bore utters distinguished in particular by the bland inconsistency of the bore's opinions. (The text is contributed by other Private Eye regulars.) The series has been resurrected in Richard Ingram's monthly magazine, The Oldie, with illustrations again by Heath.

The Suits

A series that appeared in The Spectator, lampooning the interchangeability and solemnity of men in their suits (or the utter helplessness of the normally besuited when temporarily deprived of their suits).

The Regulars

"The Regulars" ran in Private Eye; the "regulars" are Jeffrey Bernard and the other regular customers of the Coach & Horses pub in Soho. The cartoons were used in the play Jeffrey Bernard is Unwell.

Style Victims

Published in the London Sunday Times, this series makes fun of the conscious, and unconscious, style or fashion victims. (One frame shows a pair of sour-faced judges in ceremonial clothes and wigs, one grimly asking the other "What is a style victim?")

Numero Uno

A series that ran in Private Eye, "Numero Uno" makes fun of baseball-capped youth, with Walkman earphones permanently implanted in ears.

The Outlaw

A short lived strip set in the year 2000, where Michael Common is "the last person to smoke in England". Published in The Spectator.

Partners

Partnership and baby-rearing in the England of the 90s. Published in The Independent.

Henry King

A disturbingly precocious baby, permanently wearing a baseball cap. Published in The Spectator.