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'The Opening of Historical Buildings', a drawing by Lancaster featuring Maudie and William Littlehampton

Sir Osbert Lancaster (1908 - 1986) was a cartoonist, author, art critic and stage designer.

Educated at Charterhouse and Lincoln College, Oxford, he was best known to the public at large for his cartoons published in the Daily Express. He pioneered the Pocket Cartoon, a topical single panel appearing on the front page, and since imitated in several British newspapers. In these he symapthetically mocked the British upper classes, personified by his characters William (8th Earl of Littlehampton, formerly Viscount Draynflete) and his wife Maudie. During the war years, these also provided comic relief from the privations of rationing and bombing raids.

The Littlehamptons' architectural and artistic inheritances are dealt with in 'Draynflete Revealed' (1949) and 'The Littlehampton Bequest'(1973, foreword by Sir Roy Strong), two of a number of illustrated works which provide a humorous and satirical, but very well-informed, survey of architectural and aesthetic trends in British and European history.

Lancaster himself was firmly from the British upper middle classes - as his autobiographies 'All Done From Memory' (1963) and 'With an Eye to the Future' (1967, as with all his books illustrated by himself) make clear. His attitude to the British aristocracy was therefore tinged by envy; so it was only appropriate when he was granted a knighthood in 1975 - the only cartoonist to date (2006) to have received such an honour.

He was the illustrator of many other books, including Noblesse Oblige (London, Hamish Hamilton, 1973) a volume edited by Nancy Mitford, and the Parkinson's law series written by C. Northcote Parkinson.

Lancaster also provided stage designs for many productions of the theatre, ballet and opera, including Frederick Ashton's production of 'La Fille mal gardée' .

He was married to the journalist Ann Scott-James. His grandson (also named Osbert Lancaster) is an executive director of the Centre for Human Ecology, an independent think-tank.

• Drayneflete Revealed (1949) - a humorous history of British architecture, tracing the development of 'Draynflete' over the centuries.
• Here of All Places
• Façades and Faces (London, John Murray, 1950)
• Sailing to Byzantium: an architectural companion (London, John Murray, 1969)
• All Done from Memory (1963) and With an Eye to the Future (1973), autobiography.

• Biography

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