Martyn Turner   -   Political Cartoonist
Martyn Turner was born in Wanstead, Essex in 1948, grew up in Chingford Hatch and went to Bancroft's School, all of which are only a short bus ride from Leyton Orient's ground at Brisbane Road. He reluctantly gave up the chance to attend all their home matches in perpetuity when he took the slightly more attractive option of moving to Belfast at the start of the Troubles to attend university. He graduated in 1971. From 1971-76 he was co-editor of the Northern Ireland Independent Review, "Fortnight".
Since 1976 he has been contributing political cartoonist of The Irish Times in Dublin. He regularly contributes to BusinessAM (Edinburgh), The Business and The Independent (London) and has previously done stints as political cartoonist of The Sunday Express, Sunday Business and The Scotsman.

He has had 14 books of cartoons, drawings and articles published; The Book (1983), Illuminations (1986), A Fistful of Dailers (1987), Not Viking Likely (1988), Heavy Weather (1989), The Guy Who Won The Tour de France (1991), The Long Goodbye (1992), Politics et al (1992), The Odd Couple (1994), Pack Up Your Troubles-25 Years of Northern Ireland Cartoons (1995), and The Noble Art of Politics (1996), Brace Yourself-Bridge It (1998), The Golfer's Guide to World History (1999), Railings (2000). Is currently working on a thirty year retrospective to be published by Gill and Macmillan in Autumn 2003.
He was named Commentator of the Year by the Irish Media Awards in 1995 and received an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Ulster in 1998 and another Doctorate from Queen's University, Belfast in 2000. In 2002 he was named a European Cartoonist of the Year by the Museum of Satire in Forte dei Marmi, Italy and has been given other awards by misguided organisations in France, Canada and Ireland. All of these awards are guarded, day and night, by a pack of highly trained Irish red setters deep in the countryside of the Republic of Ireland (where, coincidentally, he lives, when he isn't in France.)

Martyn was surprised to hear from us, thinking his Wanstead past was long behind him. The   above resume and pictures were contributed by and remain the copyright of Martyn Turner.