An excellent present for your political friends: Sign of the Times by Peter Brookes

Sign of the Times is a new collection of acerbic, witty and moving cartoons from The Times‘s political cartoonist Peter Brookes.

Produced to the sorts of high standards that bring the best out of Brookes’s cartoons, the book is very simple – a one page introduction from the cartoonist followed by 108 of his cartoons in full cover, each with a brief reminder of the events that triggered them.

They are often funny, though for me the best are the powerfully, even slightly distastefully, moving such as the one of a pregnant President Assad about to give birth to death.

Do political cartoons matter? Did Spitting Image’s portrayal of David Steel as being in David Owen’s pocket shift any votes for example? Brookes has been central to the depiction of Ed Miliband as Wallace and the introduction does contain a passing reference to, “I realised the cartoons were touching a nerve when the Miliband team hit back in the press…”

Whether or not they move votes, the cartoons certainly entertain. A great book to have.

You can buy Sign of the Times by Peter Brookes here.

Note: a review copy of the book was provided to me by the publisher.