Flook, the soap star
Mail’s cartoon hero survives among a family’s mementoes
HE was the star of one of the most popular cartoon strips of its day that, over the decades, entertained children and documented life in post-war Britain.
Flook, a small furry animal with a snout and magical powers, was the Snoopy and Garfield of the 1950s onwards, featuring in the Daily Mail and evolving from a strip designed purely to make children laugh, to something more satirical to appeal to adult humour.
Now a special soap made in Scotland in the 1950s to appeal to Flook’s legion of fans has been uncovered during a clearout, and is thought to be the last surviving piece of such memorabilia.
Mike Cullen, of East Linton, East Lothian, found the rare Flook soap in its box belonging to his mother following her passing last year.
And the soap has special meaning to the 70-year-old, who worked in agricultural engineering, as it was made by his father’s soap factory, William Taylor & Co, in Edinburgh.
‘My mother passed away at 91 last year and we are only just getting around to going through her things,’ Mr Cullen said.
‘My father had worked as a trader in Africa, trading in palm oil, and after the war, he bought his own factory in Edinburgh.
‘He produced the Flook soap and it sold like absolute hot cakes. Family lore says there was a special pyramid window display of them in Harrods.
‘I had thought there was still a Flook soap about and found it in her belongings. It brought back happy memories.
‘I remember making one of the soaps in my dad’s factory in Leith when I was five or six-years-old. It was made with a mould and I remember bringing down the handle of a big machine and lifting it back up and there the soap was.
‘I remember looking at the cartoon strips as a child. Flook was a big, big deal in those days.’
Images from the era feature Flook – whose companion was a little boy called Rufus – mixing with the celebrities of the day.
One picture shows Dame Vera Lynn hugging a Flook toy, while another shows British speed record breaker Donald Campbell posing with a small Flook mascot.
The strip was the creation of Canadian-born artist Walter (Wally) Fawkes and ran in the Daily Mail from 1948 to 1984.
Launched for children, it soon began offering a good line in satire and social and political commentary. Its writers included Whisky Galore author Compton Mackenzie, Humphrey Lyttelton, George Melly, Barry Norman and Barry Took.
Born in Vancouver in 1924, Fawkes moved to England at seven, left school at 14, and later studied at Camberwell School of Art.
There he became friends with jazz trumpeter and humorist Lyttelton and started drawing cartoons under the pen name Trog.
His ‘Flook’ had a huge following, i ncluding Margaret Thatcher who said it was ‘quite the best com- mentary on the politics of the day’. In 1984, though, when then editor, David English refused to run a strip criticising the Conservative government for rushing South African runner Zola Budd through registration for British citizenship, a clash of personalities between Fawkes and English saw Flook disappear from the paper shortly afterwards.
He continued in another newspaper until 1990 and in later years Fawkes drew cartoons for publications such as The Spectator and Private Eye.
He retired from cartooning in 2005 because of failing eyesight.
‘Flook was a big deal in those days’