Matt's gloss on a career

The learning curve will have to wait. Otherwise, much of the rest of my life will be spent trying to photograph and upload images. Memo to Salut!: buy yourself a scanner.

But here they are. My three personalised Matt cartoons.

It's not a case of bragging, by the way. I have posted them because anyone reading this blog will know at least something about the aspects of my life that inspired Matt, and because anything he draws is worth seeing.

What is more, a valued former colleague, Peter Floyd, who has triumphed over unpromising origins (he supports West Ham United) to become a thoroughly decent man, says he has five Matt cartoons.






Mine trace obvious milestones.

* The canine gag marks my completion of 25 years on the Daily Telegraph in 2002. I had the choice of a gift worth £200 or a drinks party, presumably based on a similar value of booze, in the executive dining suite. I opted for the latter but felt obliged to put the same again behind the bar at the pub afterwards.







* The perplexed baker was brought to his shop window to welcome me on my arrival in Paris in July 2004. He's had plenty of business since but the out-of-Paris, out-of-work life change will necessitate a stricter diet.







* And the parting shot you saw yesterday. By a not too surprising coincidence, I had already decided - before seeing it - to mention "my date with the executioner" in the leaving party speech.



Thanks again, Matt. And my former Telegraph reporting colleague, news editor, home editor and editor Martin Newland - Matt's wife is his wife's sister, as it happens and if you follow me - for an impossibly flattering mention elsewhere.