Chris Riddell’s tips for young artists: bunk off school sports and study Raymond Briggs

The illustrator and Observer political cartoonist talks of his mentor – and his first crush – on Desert Island Discs

A smattering of schoolboy truancy, followed by the guiding hand of The Snowman’s creator, Raymond Briggs, were both crucial in setting the children’s author and illustrator Chris Riddell on the path to life as an artist,he has told Desert Island Discs.

Riddell, a publishing phenomenon as well as the Observer’s political cartoonist, is Lauren Laverne’s guest on the show, where he discusses the influences on his career. Bunking off school as a young boy, he tells Laverne, allowed him to develop an interest in the arts. “When I was meant to be doing games I would abscond the minute the games master had gone off to do other things,” admits Riddell, who was children’s laureate from 2015 to 2017. “I’d go across the river to the Tate gallery.”

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from The Guardian https://ift.tt/39wbNyA