Martin Rowson Libri

Undeterred by the embarrassing success of his ridiculous four-volume verse epic The Limerickiad, award-winning cartoonist Martin Rowson continues to lower the tone with a series of metrical rants and cautionary tales about contemporary political and literary life. Accompanied by the ghosts of Chesterton, Shelley, Burns and Browning, Rowson casts his gaze across the satirical spectrum from governments, gammon-faced racists, class war, nationalism and the harsh realities of child rearing to the world of literary festivals, international book fairs, best-sellers, book-launches, holiday reading lists, bottom lines, liggers, bloggers, blaggers, book-signings and book-burnings. Martin Rowson is an award-winning cartoonist whose work appears regularly in The Guardian, The Independent on Sunday, The Daily Mirror, and many other publications.

...a jauntily irreverent but fundamentally serious take on a vastly influential political work. Publishers Weekly

This is a cartoon rendition of T.S. Eliot's poem with Chandleresque overtones.

Hans Holbein’s 16th-century masterpiece, The Dance of Death , reminds its readers that no one, no matter their rank or position, can escape the great leveller, Death.In a foreboding series of woodcuts, Death, depicted as a skeleton, intrudes on the lives of people from every level of society, from the sailor to the judge, the ploughman to the king. By highlighting our common fate, Holbein exposes the folly of greed and ambition, and in doing so brings a corrupt and callous elite crashing back down to earth. In this darkly satirical update, Guardian cartoonist Martin Rowson sharpens and reshapes Holbein’s vision for the 21st century. Death seizes the City banker by his braces and offers a light to the oligarch; it joins the surgeon in theatre and the Hollywood star on the red carpet.Filled with wit and doom-laden drama, Martin Rowson’s The Dance of Death is a masterful reimagining of a book which, in its uncompromising treatment of the rich and powerful, paved the way for the great, levelling craft of political cartooning.

A grab bag of a book crammed with amusing trivia.The Wall Street...

The book features a selection of Martin Rowson's incisive columns, reflecting on the political landscape over the past two decades. Through his sharp wit, Rowson examines the rise of nationalism, internal ideological conflicts within the Labour Party, and various societal issues, including terrorism and cultural commentary. This collection showcases his contributions to both underground and mainstream publications, offering a unique perspective on contemporary politics and society, while also highlighting his broader journalistic work.

In May 2020 the award-winning cartoonist Martin Rowson set himself the challenge of writing a Lockdown Diary in verse. The result is Plague Songs, a unique cycle of furious, bleakly comic and often offensive poems about COVID-19, fiercely inventive and desperately funny. Rowson, who recovered from the virus at the start of the year (sweating in freezing fits, embalmed in bed/ In sulphurous miasmata, my joints like broken walnuts,/ With hogtied eyeballs and less energy than dissipating smoke) records in manic verse the long lockdown Summer of 2020 coughs and sneezes, lockdown-haircuts, funerals and furloughs, hangovers and hauntings, track and trace, when Death and Pestilence were playing on the swings, or visiting the elderly in their Care Homes. Plague Songs is also book about living in Banarnia a nightmarish world of jingoism and xenophobia, hierarchy and inequality, government incompetence, Boris Johnsons world-beating wet dreams, and the deadly twin viruses of stupidity and selfishness. What rhymes with COVID except bovid? Is Matt Hancock the Tory Partys answer to Fred West? Does every shroud have a silver lining?

A collection Martin Rowson's cartoons from the years of coalition

Award winning cartoonist, graphic novelist and poet Martin Rowson slows down a bit to weave together his customary fusion of fury & poignancy. Sitting in the back of a minicab driving round London at 2am in the rain, and listening to the commercial radio's endless easy-listening playlist, the award-winning cartoonist, graphic novelist and poet Martin Rowson reflects on the commodification of music, art, death, memory, funerals, love, bucket lists and dreams in the twenty-first century.