Peyton – the World’s Greatest
Yachting Cartoonist

by Dick Durham
Review by David Brann

Mike Peyton’s cartoons have wrung a wry smile from many a yachtsman. We may laugh or wince as we empathise with the undeniable and sometimes uncomfortable truth they reflect.

Much of Mike’s creativity is spawned from his keen skills of observation, but Dick Durham’s book describes how it is also fuelled by the artist’s experience of learning to sail by trial and error – in boats that would have an RNLI’s SEA Check adviser reaching for the tranquilisers.

During the war, Mike’s talent for drawing saw him recruited into Intelligence, where his incredible experiences were turned into amusing ideas for his early cartoons. Back in England he went to art college where he met his wife Kath and work was commissioned by titles such as Corsetry and Underwear and Horse and Hound. Around that time, he had his first experience of boating in a leaky sailing canoe on the Thames and it was in this that Mike and Kath began their honeymoon. While Kath shared Mike’s enthusiasm for the great outdoors, it is fair to say that she never took to boating with quite the same passion or disregard for personal safety.

Peyton is a thoroughly enjoyable read, describing the life of an extraordinary man, rightly described as the world’s greatest yachting cartoonist. It shows how grit and determination can fire any one of us to fulfil our dreams and demonstrates that the joy of boating bears no relation to the amount of money one spends.

Hardback book
Published by Adlard Coles Nautical
ISBN 9781408124406
Price: £16.99