MAC IS BACK!
The legendary cartoonist comes out of retirement to join the MoS – and he’s as joyously funny as ever
THE peerless cartoonist Stanley McMurtry – better known to millions as Mac – has picked up his magical pencil again to join The Mail on Sunday. Ever since his retirement from the Daily Mail exactly two years ago, his drawings – wickedly funny but done with great warmth – have been sorely missed by readers who took delight in them as the perfect way to start the day with a smile. For Mac has a remarkable gift to turn a few deft pencil marks and an accompanying caption into a mini-masterpiece.
Although he signed off from daily newspapers in December 2018 with a cartoon depicting himself being pushed reluctantly through the front gate of a home for retired cartoonists with the caption ‘Oh, come on, Mac! You’re supposed to walk happily into the sunset’ – he has yearned to return.
Last night, Mac said: ‘I found that I was sorely missing the sheer joy of drawing, and my head was still brimming with ideas.’
Among his legion of fans is the Queen. When she conferred an MBE on him for services to the newspaper industry, she remarked: ‘Ah, so you’re Mac, are you?’
Mac responded: ‘I hope you’re not offended by them [the cartoons],’ and she replied: ‘No, no. We always look at them. We like it when you put the corgis in.’
While constantly looking for a gag, his cartoons encompass all of everyday life. Although Mac never ducks controversy or lets politicians off the hook, his drawings are never vicious, nor crude. Sir Tim Rice, the West End lyricist, has said: ‘Day after day, he brightened the morning with wit and superb draughtsmanship, sometimes making a serious point, sometimes a hilarious one, often both at once.’
Mac’s new work will appear in every Mail on Sunday from next week. As a taster, he has drawn one cartoon for each month of 2020 for today’s edition, all published on the next two pages.
Edinburgh-born Mac started his career as a cartoonist on Punch magazine, following in the footsteps of his heroes William Hogarth and James Gillray. He joined the Daily Mail in 1971 and has won countless awards, including Cartoonist Of The Year seven times.
Instinctively, Mac shares the hopes and values, tears and fears of Middle Britain – his longevity being testimony to his empathy and humanity. Daily Mail readers will recall that almost every one of his drawings includes a small sketch of his late wife Liz’s face – hidden perhaps in a railing, fruit bowl or a tree. She died from motor neurone disease aged 69 in 2017. Mac wrote movingly in the Mail about watching as the disease shut down her body, and called for the law to be changed to allow assisted dying.
When Mac appeared on Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs, he said his luxury would be a tenor saxophone.
Now, with a weekly Mail on Sunday cartoon, his jazz-playing will have to be put on hold.
As part of a Christmas auction by the Journalists’ Charity, Mail on Sunday readers can bid to have a unique personalised cartoon drawn by Mac. For details of how to bid for it, and other ‘money can’t buy’ lots, visit journalistscharity.org.uk.
ENJOY A GLORIOUS MAC CARTOON EVERY SUNDAY – AND TURN THE PAGE FOR HIS WITTY TAKE ON EACH MONTH OF 2020