The Bumper Edition

by Beryl Cook

Beryl Cook is Britains's most popular and endearing artist. Her ability to delight the viewer has made her as popular as any of our best-loved comedians. Now out in paperback, this beautiful and lavish book features over 300 of Beryl's playful, hilarious, and perceptive color pictures.

Genres: Art

304 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

Beryl Cook, OBE (10 September 1926 – 28 May 2008) was a British artist best known for her original and instantly recognisable paintings. Often comical, her works pictured people whom she encountered in everyday life, including people enjoying themselves in pubs, girls shopping or out on a hen night, drag queen shows or a family picnicking by the seaside or abroad. She had no formal training and did not take up painting until her thirties. She was a shy and private person and in her art often depicted the flamboyant and extrovert characters she would have liked to have been.

Reviews

[Gerry · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is acurately described as Bumper for more reasons than one; Beryl Cook had had eight books published at this time and the illustrations within are all collected together to form this bumper collection and then, most of the characters, particularly the ladies in the paintings are bumper in size! That is, in typical Beryl Cook fantastic style.

She portrays her early life in Plymouth - both by night and day - in which sailors and ladies of the night abound, and her time in London, a crowded Paddington Station, and a lady flashing in her fur coat with the watching gentleman's expression one of mingled horror and pleasure.

Garden jazz, Sunday afternoon picnics and even a nude draped over a car at the Motor Show feature in her 'Round Britain' section while in America New Orleans features heavily as does Coney Island and its activities.

'Globetrotting' features places as far apart as The Rialto Bridge and a Pavement in Buenos Aires while 'Homes and Gardens' are more sedate with Beryl featuring the green leaves she so likes to portray - as well, of course, as plenty of flowers and people tending them.

Tennis, football, jogging, cycling are among the sports covered in 'Sport and Recreation', with the latter portraying one of those parties that ladies attend to purchase racy underwear; Beryl stresses that she never attended any and sadly, in view of the stately and alluring lady clad in stockings and suspenders in her illustration, I must confess the same myself!

The delightfully funny book finishes with the animal kingdomm, and there are some fine paintings of big cats, and finally 'Flights of Fancy', my favourite of which is Clement Freud stretched out with a glass of wine and a picnic in some sheltered glade.

The whole collection is prefaced by a memoir of the artist by the editor, all of which makes the book, and its contents, a bumper offering.

[Andy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a Great, in every sense of the word, book.
Beautiful quality paper does justice to the excellent paintings. A real treasure trove of a book.

[The Bookish Wombat · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful big book of Beryl Cook's work, from her earliest paintings through to her later pieces. Each of the gloriously bright pictures is accompanied by short description by the artist of how each piece came into being, the inspiration behind it etc. A wonderful book for dipping into again and again.

[Paul Barton · Rating 4 out of 5]

All the Beryl Cook you could ever want, beautifully printed and nicely bound. Anyone familiar with the artist's work won't need telling how gloriously funny and clever her caricatures are but what elevates this collection are the passages that describe the inspiration for each painting.