The Animals Who Govern Us

Willey Park House, Farnham, Surrey: Graphic Grins Ltd, 1986. Assumed First Edition . Hard Back. Very Good/No Dust Jacket. 9 1/4" x 12 1/2. Montis, Alain - Design. 61 Pages. Covers show light wear to corners and the large stiff front cover has a slight curve. The concept of Mrs Thatcher as "Attila the Hen" (her first and most enduring nick name in Whitehall) has now been corroborated by three remarkable French caricaturists, lean Mulatier, Patrice Ricord, and lean-Claude Morchoisne. Working in the tradition of portrait-change or loaded likeness, they have been able to uncover the beasts beneath the skin of our world leaders. It was another Frenchman, Charles Philipon, who originally gave the form notoriety back in the 1830 's when the representation of his monarch, Louis-Philippe, as a pear lead him briskly to the dock. He was eventually acquitted of defamation after sketching the transformation stages from king's head to pear and asking the jury, "Is it my fault if His Majesty looks like a pear?" In the hands of Philipon's successors, "Nadar", Andre Gill and Gustave Dore, the art of the swollen head became the most devastating form of caricature, widening the scope for the emergence of personality traits like rat-like cunning and naked opportunism. Eyes came to betray the subject's next move, giving observers a glimpse of the truth and with luck altering their perception for good. Mulaiier and company are all for altered perceptions so that we can see our world as Animal Farm. Unlike Philipon, however, they needfear no court. The subtle stages of their transformations are all here, as proof positive, in the book. Thus we can see, no matter how many millions are spent trying to persuade us of the warmly human qualities of our leaders, that Mrs Thatcher is a veritable hen, that President Reagan is a cock, that Prince Charles is a mule and that President Mitterrand just has to be a turkey. From their work for magazine covers, Mulatier, Ricord and Morchoisne have long been famed for an original style which cuts to the core like a scalpel. With their exceptional colour technique using pencil and brush, their flesh is made real, ready to sweat, the spittal glistens on the teeth. Their realism is of the eerie kind that gets under the skin. Leonid Brezhnev on a visit to West Germany found their portrait of him in "Stern" too horrifying. Forgetting that he was no longer in Russia, he rang the editor and demanded its removal. With this book they add to their laurels, taking the portrait-change by the scruff of the neck and bringing it, where it should be, bang up to date.