LONDON.- Roy Newby was the London-based artist behind thousands of images made during his career as a children’s and young persons’ comic-strip illustrator. However, away from his commercial work, he created art of real distinction, most of which he never made public. A year after his death at the age of almost ninety-nine, Newby’s son is garnering them the recognition they deserve in a book about his father.

Public & Private – the arts of Roy Newby celebrates a life of professional image-making which, beginning in the 1920s, went on throughout much of the twentieth century. Even today, a hundred years after his birth, prints of Roy Newby’s work are regularly purchased by discerning art-lovers.

The book tells of the story of a commercial artist, illustrator and painter. Contrasting Roy Newby’s modest professional approach with his fierce private talent, readers are taken on a journey through his career as an illustrator for children’s comics and teenagers’ magazines and also offered a lavishly-illustrated collection of his private art: drawings and sketches, watercolours and paintings in oils.

“His commercial work was of consistently high quality. But when he could find the time, my father also drew and painted for himself,” says Michael Newby. “His work achieved a quality that deserves to be enjoyed by many more. That’s why I wrote the book – to show both sides of his considerable talent.”

He continues: “His story tells of the contrast between his need, as an illustrator, to meet the professional necessities of his trade and also to realise his desire as an artist to express himself.”

The book, beautifully produced in hardback, contains over one hundred and twenty images, over half in full colour. Many are taken from his commercial work and show the deceptively simple skills he brought to telling stories in pictures. The rest are studio works, many exploring landscape, the nude and portraiture.

“Public & Private tells the story of my father’s life and art, going far beyond his comic strips. I explore the side of him that only his family and close friends got to see,” adds Michael. “Now, a great many previously private works are on display for everyone to enjoy.”

Public & Private – the Arts of Roy Newby, published by The Funny Little Man Press in conjunction with Writersworld, is available now from the author, priced �21.50 plus �3.50 post and packing, or from internet booksellers.

Michael Newby was born in 1945. He went to Latymer Upper School, London, and was a member of the National Youth Theatre. He read English at York and, later, for a Masters in Applied Linguistics at Reading. Later still (by now retired) he read for another Masters, this time in Medieval Studies at Exeter.

He spent all his professional life in education, first as a school teacher, later (and mainly) in Higher Education. For ten years, he was Dean of Arts & Education at the University of Plymouth, a role which brought him into daily contact with artists and design professionals. He was Chair of the Universities Council for the Education of Teachers. He worked for Teachers TV and for what is now the Teaching Agency. He also chaired the HEARTS project (Higher Education, the Arts and Schools). He spent a winter in Indiana as a visiting professor, returning often to the USA since then. He has also lectured in Australia, China, Malaysia and Finland.

He is married to Sue and lives in East Devon.