Gerard Hoffnung was a German-born musician and artist who died tragically young at 34 in 1959. The Times obit said: Hoffnung was among other things an artist, a musician, a linguist, a raconteur, a Quaker, a bon viveur, a prison visitor and a mime. It is usual to say that a man has left behind a gap that cannot be filled. For Gerard Hoffnung there would be needed a handful of men, all of them greatly gifted. His cartoons often appeared in Punch, which was true of these in this posthumously published collection.