Pugh, Jonathan b.1962

Jonathan Pugh original pocket cartoon artwork

Pugh wanted to become a cartoonist from the age of five, recalling that "I was always doodling as a boy. Drawing was a lovely escape, something I could do that neither my friends or parents could do." His first published cartoon appeared in the Bromsgrove Messenger in 1976, just before his 14th birthday, illustrating an article by his father. Pugh studied law at Oxford Polytechnic, but later confessed that he "spent most of my time gazing out of the window and doodling." Self-taught as an artist, he spent two years after graduation teaching art and games at a prep school, while trying to get his cartoons published. He finally got his first cartooning job on Bus Business, a coach industry magazine that paid him £18 a week. As Pugh later recalled, "I got into newspapers by sending samples of my work to various art editors": "One called back and said he would like to use my work at some stage, and several months later he did." In 1995 Pugh began drawing The Times' Diary cartoon, and in the following year he became the paper's front-page Pocket Cartoonist. In January 2010 Pugh became pocket cartoonist for the Daily Mail, and his work has also appeared in Punch, Spectator, Private Eye and the Tablet. His advertising clients include Visa and Barclaycard.