Angus Rides the Goods Train

Riddell has few equals when it comes to draughtsmanship in the great British illustrative tradition. He stands alongside Rowlandson, Gilray, Cruickshank and Searle as a prolific and versatile graphic artist whose drawings are as comfortable in the context of political satire as they are in that of the children’s book. Here the two genres are brazenly straddled in Durant’s didactic allegory of the iniquities of the contemporary world order. Small boy Angus climbs aboard the clanking food train as it sets off on its exotic journey to deliver to ‘somewhere important’. To Angus’s dismay, the train rattles past the water-starved trees, the hungry and orphaned children and the caged animals. The train’s destination is the dinner table of kings and despots. This book is a demonstration of the sheer virtuosity of Riddell’s craft. Few other artists could describe the features of a desperate bear with such perfection, or drive a great iron steam engine onto a child’s bedclothes so convincingly.