<h1><strong>Corporate cartoonist chuckles through 1,000 years of history</strong></h1>
If anyone could find a belly laugh in Brexit, it’s corporate cartoonist James Mellor.

The illustrator has just released his first book taking a sideways look at 1,000 years of British history. And if there is one thing he knows the nation is good at, it’s laughing at ourselves.

“I deliberately ended the book in 1994 with the opening of the Channel tunnel, so the exact opposite of Brexit,” says James.

But he was fully employed both before and after the referendum, penning a series of cartoons for GAMBICA, the trade association for instrumentation, control, automation and lab technology industries in the UK, which represents more than 200 companies with a combined export value of £3.7bn.

When the result came through, James, artful as ever, switched from penning cartoons that encouraged GAMBICA’s members to vote remain, instead flagging up the new business opportunities created by the decision to leave!

It was the capricious nature of much of British history that inspired him to create a book devoted to it.

<em>Drawn From History: A cartoon journey through Britain’s Past</em> takes a sideways look at 1,000 years of memorable moments.

“The past is fascinating,” says James, who read history at York University before becoming a freelance writer and illustrator, specialising in cartoons for business magazines and research, writing and illustration for corporate clients.

“The book is a slightly selfish project,” he confesses. “It is something I’ve always longed to do. Some of the ideas for the jokes have been with me for decades, just waiting for the right moment. Others are inspired by what I think are fantastic stories in history, although not necessarily the most famous.”

Viewed through a modern lens, his 111 single panel line drawings reimagine events from 10 historical periods, starting just after the Ice Age and ending at the close of the last century, but avoiding the crises and upsets of the early 21<sup>st</sup>. Those more recent illustrations, including Brexit, have been reserved for a Best of the Year ebook, released as a free bonus to <em>Drawn from History</em>.

Recently, he provided the illustration’s for the <em>Crew To Captain</em> series of business self-help books, written by his father, Horsham-based author and Cass Business School lecturer David Mellor – although he admits it wasn’t the easiest commission.

“We share the same sense of humour and are on the same wave length, but I had to press him to get criticism because his parental instinct was to say the cartoons were all great!” says James.

He believes this century has seen a major shift in attitude towards the role of the cartoonist.

“The tragic events around Charlie Hebdo changed people’s opinions. There is a lot more support and understanding of what we are there to do. My work isn’t looking to cause controversy, though, it’s just remarkably silly. That said, I was aware that you have to be sensitive about making jokes of things that are in living memory and that’s reflected in my introduction to the chapter on 20<sup>th</sup> century cartoons.”

His favourite from the collection?

“I quite like the joke about the Magna Carta,” he chuckles. “But to find out why, you’ll have to read the book!”

<strong>Drawn From History:</strong>

A cartoon journey through Britain’s Past by James Mellor is published by Filament Publishing, priced £9.99 (<strong>ISBN: </strong>978-1-911425-16-8) and is available from <a href="http://www.jamesmellorcreative.co.uk">www.jamesmellorcreative.co.uk</a>. Anyone purchasing Drawn from History from the website, will qualify to download a free bonus ebook in early 2017.

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