#011 How to find the thing you've lost

Thank you Paul / My home town

Hello Diagram Club,

Welcome to the latest newsletter, which is delivered, as always, on a Thursday Friday Saturday.

Household problem of the week

How to find the thing you’ve lost. May or may not be based on very recent and very actual incident.

You can find the Household Problems archive (can we call it that yet?) at HouseholdProblems.com, and you can follow and suchlike via @HouseholdProblems on Instagram.

News updates / Admin announcements / Matters arising

A significant week for me this week, as we marked the retirement of Paul Handley, editor of the Church Times from 1995 to 2024, for whom I’ve drawn, by my calculations, more than 900 cartoons over the last 19 years. I first sent Paul a cartoon in 2004, and since April 2005 I’ve had a weekly cartoon in the paper (except for a few times when I’ve taken a break for a number of months, of which this summer has been one example).

Why tell you this in this newsletter? Well, I really have Paul to thank for the fact you’re reading this now, as I probably wouldn’t have been able to draw professionally had he not taken a chance on me as an unknown cartoonist. Paul has always been a strong cartoon enthusiast, and for much of his tenure there have been 4 cartoons in the paper each week. He’s been a great editor to work with - giving me a lot freedom, and if he’s needed to say ‘That doesn’t quite work’ to something I’ve done, I’ve almost always, in hindsight at least, agreed.

Last night we had a farewell event at Southwark Cathedral, and it was great to be there with friends, contributors to the paper and journalist / publishing colleagues from the time I worked in the newsroom as the website editor for the paper.

For those interested: yes, I will be continuing to draw for the CT. I look forward to working with Sarah Meyrick, the new editor, and being in the offices rather more than I have been.

Photo with Paul, February 2020, when we marked 25 years of his editorship. Larger version of the cartoon available for Paid members, below.

And if anyone does want to see more of my ecclesiastical cartoons: There are many to be found on my CartoonChurch website. I’m considering starting a separate Substack for that side of my work (but don’t worry, Diagram Club is remaining my main and only weekly newsletter).

Annotated photograph of the week

I’ve been in my home town of Newport, South Wales a lot recently, and so it’s about time we had a Newport annotated photo.

Cafe news

• The lovely art group might be drawing me next week. The brief is to stay motionless looking like I’m doing something, which is more-or-less my default state anyway, so not a hardship.

• There’s a new knitting and crocheting group starting on a Tuesday. This is, I think, a more tricky group for me to loiter on the edge of, once they get past ‘Week 1 - How to thread a needle’.

• I was in on Sunday and got to witness the expert stock-curation skills of S and J, the Sunday volunteers (names redacted as I haven’t asked for permission). A superb teapot-based scene was created. If there’s overwhelming demand (one person emails in) I’ll show you a photo.

• There are cows on the reserve, though I haven’t yet seen them. We’ve been assured that they are fine in the rain, and don’t require (my suggestion) the excess cafe parasols for shelter.

If you’d like to visit the Langdon Nature reserve cafe here’s how. Postcode SS16 6EJ.

Apologies, corrections and clarifications

I’m still way behind on email replies. You know how it is - some messages warrant more than a one-line reply, so you put it off until tomorrow to do it properly. But please do send me comments, feedback, questions, and, (if possible) complaints.

Cycling cartoon of the week

Never posted this one before. To mark the possible advent of ‘Is it gloves weather?’.

Cartoon from ‘The Cycling Cartoonist, published by Bloomsbury. See my books here.

Studio Playlist update

It’s the studio playlist, where I tell you what’s playing here, and you listen to something else. This week we’re going back to the 80s, almost certainly not for the last time.

Yazoo - Don’t go. Basildon’s finest.
Mr Mister - Kyrie. The sort of thing 15-year-old DW was listening to (pirated cassette).
Jane Wiedlin - Rush hour. Came up in conversation last night. Symbolises office playlist (on CD rom, possibly?) from time spent putting in website bolds and italics, early 2010s.

Colour of the week (filler)

Someone needs to keep a record, because I haven’t. Have we had Diagram Club Button orange? I think we’re talking #ee7835.

Well, that’s all for now. Content for Paid subscribers continues below. Planning to be back in your inbox very soon with issue, well, #012, I suppose.

Dave

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