Bill Tidy

William Edward "Bill" Tidy, MBE (born 9 October 1933), is a British cartoonist, writer and television personality, known chiefly for his comic strips. Tidy was appointed MBE in 2000 for "Services to Journalism". He is noted for his charitable work, particularly for the Lord's Taverners, which he has supported for over 30 years. Deeply proud of his working class roots in the North of England, his most abiding cartoon strips, such as the Cloggies and the Fosdyke Saga, have been set in an exaggerated version of that environment. He now lives in Boylestone, Derbyshire.

Early life

He was born in Tranmere, a suburb of Birkenhead, Cheshire, on 9 October 1933 and brought up in Liverpool, where he was educated to the age of 15 at St Margaret's School, Anfield. His first published cartoon appeared in the school magazine.

After working in a shipping office Tidy joined the Royal Engineers in 1952. He sold his first cartoon to a Japanese newspaper in 1955 and in the same year left the army. He found work in a Liverpool advertising agency the following year, where he drew illustrations for advertisements in magazines. Despite having no formal artistic training, he began to sell cartoons on a freelance basis and soon left the agency to work full-time as a professional cartoonist.