Biography/Siobhán Parkinson: 'We thank God that he has spared your life to reach the first stage of 10 years. We both hope that God may call you to do some useful work for Him in days to come."
Even preceded by a birthday wish and followed by an affectionate closing greeting, to a modern - or perhaps I mean simply a non-Methodist - sensibility, these seem chilling words for a father to address to his young son, especially considering that this was a child growing up at a long distance from his parents. (He had been sent back home to England from Burma, apparently for health reasons, by his missionary parents.)
The recipient of this shrouded greeting was the young Alfred (Fred) Bestall. He grew up to be as committed a Methodist as his parents, and though a career as illustrator and writer of the much-loved Rupert Bear stories was hardly likely to have been quite what his father had in mind when he wrote that birthday message, it is clear that Bestall's Christian commitment informed his work, though not, he hoped, in a "pi" way.
Moreover, though the birthday postcard might suggest that the father's aspirations for his son were of a clerical kind, there is no hint here that there was ever the slightest disappointment at the way things turned out. On the contrary, the first two payments Bestall received for drawings were matched pound for pound by his father, which suggests not only parental pride and encouragement but also approval of his chosen career.
Mind you, it is difficult enough to get a rounded impression from this rather curious publication. The biography proper occupies rather less than half of the book, and it is sketchy, presumably because it is mainly based on whatever materials were available to the author from the subject's papers - she was his goddaughter, and, himself unmarried and childless, he left his effects to her. It is also uneven, for much the same reason. There is a good deal of material on Bestall's war years (he was an army driver in northern France and Belgium during the first World War), for example, because there were letters home to draw on, but there are lots of gaps, and even the chapter on the Rupert years - the section of the book likely to be of most interest to Rupert fans, who will presumably constitute the main readership of this volume - lacks detail and clarity.
The second half of the volume consists of three journals written by Bestall himself, two accounts of family holidays in his beloved Wales, and one much longer account of a family trip to Egypt and the Holy Land in the 1920s. These journals reveal Bestall as precisely what the biography claims: a kindly, unassuming, mildly humorous man, with a keen interest in sport and the countryside, a genuine affinity with children, close family ties, a strong religious commitment and a love of drawing. But no more. These journals were clearly meant for general consumption, presumably by family members, and there is no sense here of a man with an inner life.
On the contrary, the journals, like the letters which are quoted (in full) in the biographical section, are full of daily trivia - endless reports on the weather and who came to tea. One knows that the writer is religious because he makes frequent references to church-going and occasional allusions to Christian values, but there is little sense here of a man whose faith, though strong, ever occupied his thoughts. Perhaps it was so fundamental to his world view that he took it for granted; nevertheless, the lack of any kind of comment, beyond describing them as "beautiful", on the sermons he faithfully remembers to mention and whose subject he occasionally records, is extraordinary in the personal writing of a religious man.
Indeed, Bestall rarely offers an opinion - a rueful comment on sectarian fighting over the site of the Nativity of Jesus in Bethlehem is the closest we get to what he actually thinks about anything more important than tennis or motoring.
The real charm of this book lies in its reproduction of copious amounts of Bestall's fine drawings and delightful paintings and illustrations. Most interesting are the non-Rupert drawings, ranging from cartoons for Punch and other magazines, through landscapes and portraits - including, surprisingly for such a conventional man, some nude studies - to droll illustrations for advertisements.
This is clearly a labour of love, and it will be welcomed by Rupert fans and those interested in the history of illustration, especially for its pictorial content. However, it is a presentation of biographical material rather than an interpretive biography. The lengthy Holy Land journal in particular is unlikely to be of great interest to readers principally attracted by the Rupert connection. This is a book mainly for dipping into, though the comprehensive list of illustrations and the index will also make it useful as a reference tool.
Siobhán Parkinson writes for children and young people. Her first novel for an adult readership, The Thirteenth Room, will be published by Blackstaff in October
The Life and Works of Alfred Bestall, Illustrator of Rupert Bear. By Caroline Bott, Bloomsbury, 338pp. £20