Martin Honeysett, who has died aged 71, was one of the greatest gag cartoonists Britain has produced and also one of its most brilliant artists. This combination of talents brought him a career that endured for nearly 50 years and resulted in a unique body of work. He was once asked why he drew people in such a grotesque, often cruel, way and he replied simply: “That’s the way they look.”
He was born in Hereford to Kathleen (nee Probert), a shorthand typist, and Donovan, a salesman. The family moved to London when Martin was two years old. (When, years later, Martin and his wife moved to Romney Marsh, in Kent, he would constantly tell her: “I know all about the countryside – I was born in it.”) At Selhurst grammar school, Croydon, he was taught art by Geoffrey Dickinson, who would become deputy cartoon editor of Punch magazine, and then went on to Croydon School of Art (1960-61).
Martin decided that the constraints of art school were not for him, so he worked part-time in a London animation studio and in a factory in Manchester. His itchy feet – something that he suffered from all his life – took him to New Zealand, where he had a variety of jobs, including lumberjack and stagehand at the New Zealand ballet school. He went on to Canada where he once again took up lumberjacking and “bummed around”, as he put it, doing anything that came his way, including washing cars.
On his return to Britain in 1968 he took a job driving buses for London Transport. In 1970 he married Lolly, whom he had met in Canada, and they went on to have two children, Dominic and Sophie. Martin began drawing cartoons part-time and sent them to Punch, renewing his acquaintance with Dickinson. He became an instant success, with his macabre sense of humour and original drawing style, and he continued to contribute to the magazine until its demise in the 1990s.
He also began appearing in Private Eye, where his more outlandish ideas were not constrained by Punch’s traditional attitude to humour. His success in these two magazines meant that he caught the eye of other publications such as the Observer, Sunday Telegraph, Evening Standard, Radio Times and, later, the Oldie.
Books of his own work included Honeysett at Home (1976), The Motor Show Book of Humour (1978), The Not Another Book of Old Photographs Book (1981), Microphobia: How to Survive Your Computer and the Technological Revolution (1982), Fit for Nothing (1983), The Joy of Headaches (1984), Animal Nonsense Rhymes (1984) and The Best of Honeysett (1985). He also illustrated dozens of books for others. In a notable collaboration with the poet Ivor Cutler , Martin provided pencil drawings for Life in a Scotch Sitting Room (1984) and Gruts (1986).
Martin received many international awards, and in 2005 was made visiting professor of cartooning at Kyoto Seika University, Japan. He was a quiet man with a vicious sense of humour and remained modest no matter how much praise was heaped upon him. People could mistake this modesty for indifference or coldness, but Martin was a man who knew his talent and just didn’t want to shout about it.
He was as much liked personally as he was admired for his work by his peers. He was capable of the odd wild extreme and achieved almost legendary status when he threw a huge wobbly cake baked for Private Eye’s 21st birthday party over the head of the notoriously pompous cartoonist Michael ffolkes. His name will live for ever just for that.
Martin and Lolly divorced in 1988. He is survived by Penny, his partner of 19 years, and his children.
• Martin Honeysett, cartoonist, born 20 May 1943; died 20 January 2015
