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Welcome to the official website of Norman Thelwell, 'the unofficial artist of the British countryside' and one of Britain's finest cartoonists. Norman Thelwell died early in 2004 at the age of 80, leaving behind a vast and much-loved body of work.
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| Best known for his humorous cartoons of little girls and their ponies - from which the description 'Thelwell pony' has become a part of the English language - this subject only scratches the surface of his life-long passion for cartoons. He published 32 books on subjects ranging from the ever-popular ponies to cats and dogs, children, fishing, sailing, motoring, house-hunting, gardening, golf, country sports, the environment and stately homes.
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Thelwell's first pony cartoon was published in Punch in 1953.
Thelwell's first book, a collection of his cartoons entitled Angels on Horseback, was published in 1957, and was inspired by his observations of two hairy ponies - 'small and round and fat and of very uncertain temper' - who grazed in a field next to his house. They were owned by 'two little girls about three feet high who could have done with losing a few ounces themselves.... As the children got near, the ponies would swing round and present their ample hindquarters and give a few lightning kicks which the children would side-step calmly as if they were avoiding the kitchen table, and they had the head-collars on those animals before they knew what was happening. I was astonished at how meekly they were led away; but they were planning vengeance - you could tell by their eyes.'
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So were born Thelwell's characters Penelope and her pony Kipper!
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