IT was an honour to say a few words tonight at the opening of an exhibition of the work of The Northern Echo's cartoonist John Longstaff, alias Cluff.
John's daily cartoon began in 1990 and has been a feature of the paper ever since. His drawings are waspish to the extent that they sometimes evoke a sharp intake of breath, often make our readers smile, and are brilliantly topical.
So topical, in fact, that his latest submission to the paper, drawn at 4.30pm this afternoon, is the last framed illustration in a display which starts with a cartoon for a college magazine in 1966.
John works more or less as he has done since 1990, by offering a choice of two black and white cartoons following a brief chat with the newsdesk about what's making the news. in 1990, they were sent by fax. Today, they are sent by email.
Today, we had the choice of John's satirical take on the Tesco profits scandal, or the confirmation that Edinburgh Zoo's panda is definitely not pregnant. It was a tough choice but I've gone with the panda.
What the exhibition shows is the breadth of John's talent. Plenty of his Northern Echo cartoons through the years are on display, but so are his paintings in a wide variety of techniques.
Cluff's exhibition at the library in Crown Street is on until November 13 and is well worth a visit.
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