How I Came to Berlin: An Artist\u2019s Journey from Belfast and the London Blitz to a Cold-War City <\/p>\n
Author: Elizabeth Shaw<\/p>\n
ISBN-13: 978-1843519522<\/p>\n
Publisher: Lilliput Press<\/p>\n
Guideline Price: \u20ac18.99<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Irish are very conscious of clan and history,\u201d Elizabeth Shaw writes in her fascinating memoir, published in English for the first time by Lilliput. A famous children\u2019s author in Germany<\/a>, Shaw\u2019s work is not well known in Ireland, the country of her birth, which she left for England<\/a> in early adolescence and would not return to until the 1960s, when she visited as a journalist covering the Troubles. <\/p>\n Indeed, Shaw\u2019s own version of her life positions her as a European, politically and geographically. Leaving Belfast<\/a>, she quickly forgets \u201cabout dreamy Irish nationalism and [is] fired instead by the ideals and hopes of a generation that aimed at an international society, which would put an end to war and social injustice\u201d.<\/p>\n Shaw attended the prestigious Chelsea Arts School, and under the mentorship of Henry Moore, who would go on to be an official war artist, she found her niche: vivid caricature and signwriting. With the arrival of the war to British shores, she put her steady hand to use when she was posted to \u201cpaint telephone numbers on switchboards, or \u2018This way to the air-raid shelter\u2019… <\/p>\n \u201cOnce I was sent to an underground bunker in northwest London, which was designed to be a refuge for the government should the Nazis invade, and painted a telephone number beside Churchill<\/a>\u2019s bed.\u201d<\/p>\n One of the joys of this publication is the inclusion of many of Shaw\u2019s newspaper cartoons, which capture the political climate in the \u201cgrim ruins\u201d of postwar Berlin<\/a>, where she settled with her German husband. Another highlight is Shaw\u2019s incidental encounters with other leading artists, including Bertolt Brecht, who she was invited to draw. Too shy to accept, she did go on to illustrate a posthumous children\u2019s version of Brecht\u2019s work. This publication became the catalyst for a new career in children\u2019s illustration, with commissions to illustrate work by Mark Twain, Hans Fallada and Astrid Lindgren, among others.<\/p>\n