Re: The Pages of Punch

1962: Foreigners! …

A deeply repulsive brigand has abducted a single young woman slightly known to the British couple. I see this as an adverse comment on the whole concept of going abroad. Miss Taylor would have been better off taking her holiday in Bournemouth.

Oddly enough cheap package holidays were just beginning to take off by 1962 but for the most part those who went on them tended never to leave the hotel and to stay all day by the pool.

Re: The Pages of Punch

1963: Surprise when moving in

The house is called ‘River Cottage’. The couple moving in are rightly disconcerted to see the skeleton of a fish lodged half way up a tree. In reality there would have been much more visible signs of flooding when looking at the state of the house.

Re: The Pages of Punch

1962: An alligator reckons his chances

The cartoonist pretends that alligators understand the uses that Western societies may want to make of their skin. Nowadays some people would prefer the actual skin as being much more sustainable than plastic.

Re: The Pages of Punch

1962: Visual Aid

It’s quite hard to see the point here. Presumably the teacher is speaking Hamlet’s soliloquy ‘Alas poor Yorick, I knew him well’ using a football to represent the dead man’s skull. How is this considered suitable material for Punch?

Re: The Pages of Punch

1964: A false forecast

Try telling that to Apple, Google and Facebook. The big players continue to make big profits.

Re: The Pages of Punch

1962: Legal realism

Marriage Guidance was practiced at the time. I reckon that these days it’s called conflict resolution.

Re: The Pages of Punch

1965: Sacking the Manager

Reluctant to sack the football team’s manager? This suggests a soft heart that one does not instantly associate with football club directors.

Re: The Pages of Punch

1964: Garden gnome worship

Thelwell has imagined a religious life in the garden. The garden gnome sitting on a mushroom / toadstool is being worshipped by snails.

Re: The Pages of Punch

1964: Beatlemania

Pure hell? I suppose the constable is dreading the outbreaks of unrest when the sales start at exactly the same time as tickets will be on sale for a performance by the Beatles. The artist has shown the generational difference with the oldies wanting cut-price bargains in the sales and the youngsters wanting to see the fab four. Beatlemania was at its height in 1964.

Re: The Pages of Punch

1965: An important man

As he purposively enters his office all the phones are symbolically leaping from their cradles to insist upon his urgent attention. No doubt that is how he sees it.