However, in March 1944, the Admiralty asked the WAAC if they could have him ‘on loan’ from the War Office. Eric Kennington was one of a small number of artists to be employed as a British official war artist in both world wars.

Ardizzone's father, Auguste Ardizzone, was a naturalised Frenchman of Italian descent, who was born a Pied-Noir in French Algeria, then a colony of France, and worked on overseas government service elsewhere in the French colonial empire.And this, almost certainly, is why the Tim books have just as much appeal for adults as they do for children; and why, too, there is no condescension in either the writing or the illustrations for the books. An exceptionally gifted sketcher, Underwood was awarded a scholarship to the Royal Academy where he studied life-drawing under the tutelage of E. He encountered Surrealism, and after moving back to England became a founding member of the British Surrealist Group. By this time, the WAAC had collected almost 400 of his works, a number exceeded by only one other artist, Anthony Gross. The area of Maida Vale in London was also very familiar to the artist, as the Ardizzone family had lived there since 1920.

He sketched these at the scene, unlike his overseas drawings, which were sourced from notes and memory as he generally felt uncomfortable drawing in public. In 1951 Trevelyan married Mary Fedden (see artists) and the couple travelled widely, in Europe, Africa, India and the USA, before settling in London, Durham Wharf, on the banks of the River Thames, where he set up his etching studio. Beside writing and illustrating his own books, Ardizzone also illustrated books written by others, including some editions of Anthony Trollope and H. scribbling over my lessons’ *) But his interest in drawing stayed with him, and after the day time committments of his first job as clerk for the Eastern Telegraph Company Ardizzone took evening classes in life-drawing at Westminster School of Art, London.The success of Tim All Alone and the continuation of the series clearly caught the attention of the wider art world as well as that of illustration: in 1967 Ardizzone was commissioned by the Royal Post Office to design birthday greetings telegrams, in 1970 became an elected member of the Royal Academy, and in 1971 was awarded a CBE for his contributions to the world of British art.