'Mr. Crabtree'.
Bernard Venables was a British angler and cartoonist, working during the 1940s and 1950s on educational comic features about gardening and fishing for London's The Daily Mirror, 'Mr. Digwell' and 'Mr. Crabtree'.
Early life and career
Bernard Venables was born on Valentine's Day 1907 in Catford, south-east London. His lifelong passion for fishing took off at age six. As his other interest was art, he studied at the Croydon School of Art, after which he became an illustrator and cartoonist for the Daily Express and then the Daily Mirror.
Mr. Digwell
In 1946, Venables was the first artist of The Daily Mirror's long-running comic feature 'Mr. Digwell', written by writer/journalist Ambrose Heath. In the post-World War II years, the feature initially educated people to grow their own vegetables, as food rationing was still in place. Later, it became a comic with more regular gardening tips, hosted by Mr. Digwell, a gardener with a large mustache. During the 1950s, Heath and Venables were succeeded by writer Ian Gammidge and artist Jack Dunkley, who continued it until the early 1990s. Over the years, the character has remained a mascot for the Daily Mirror's botanical sections, who has also appeared in books.
'Mr. Crabtree'.
Mr. Crabtree
In a similar fashion, Bernard Venables wrote and drew 'Mr. Crabtree', a 1940s/1950s educational comic strip that, along with the seasons, switched between gardening and fishing. The character was additionally the host of fishing books like 'Mr. Crabtree Goes Fishing' (1949) and 'Fishing With Mr. Crabtree in All Waters' (1964), written and drawn by Bernard Venables and published by The Daily Mirror.
In 2012, writer John Bailey and artist Robert Olson created a modern-day version of the character with the book 'Fishing in the Footsteps of Mr. Crabtree', offering a mixture of traditional and modern fishing techniques and tactics. Bernard Venables' daughter Hannah Bruford also contributed to the book. The book was also the basis for an educational TV series, 'Fishing in the Footsteps of Mr. Crabtree' (2013), broadcast on Quest.
'Mr. Crabtree Goes Fishing'.
Fishing
In 1953, Venables teamed up with broadcaster Howard Marshall to set up a nationwide fishing newspaper. With Venables as editorial director, the Angling Times was launched, which by 1962 was selling 170,000 copies per week. In 1963, he left the magazine to launch Creel, another angling magazine. Throughout his life, Bernard Venables remained a passionate angler. Later in life, he published the book 'Bernard Venables: The Illustrated Memoirs of a Fisherman'. Bernard Venables died in 2001 in Salisbury, Wiltshire, at the age of 94.
Bernard Venables.