Considering the unpromising provenance of this book - the University of Kent's Centre for the Study of Cartoons and Caricature - it is not as academically jargon-ridden as the reader would have good reason to fear. Predictably its unrealistic aim - to analyse the effect of political cartoons on all the British elections between 1945 and 1997 - is not fulfilled, but since in its pursuit the knowledgeable author, Alan Mumford, entertains us by recalling a great number of the best and most amusing political cartoons of the last half-century, why should we complain?

For the benefit of those who did not live through this period and know no contemporary history - not his students, one hopes - the author helpfully explains who all the characters are - Winston Churchill, de Gaulle, Stalin etc - and also the point which the cartoonist is trying to make, which is a bit like the editor of a book of 20th-century jokes feeling the need to explain each and every one of them. Given, however, the undoubted need nowadays for such a commentary, Alan Mumford meets it with admirable economy, accuracy and perception.

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