London calling.
London Walks connecting.
This… is London.
This is London Walks.
Streets ahead. Story time.
History time.
And today, a little change of pace.
A guest voice. A sharp eye.
A timely thought or three about satire, dictators, cartoonists, and why laughter matters more than ever.
Here’s Adam.
Hello everyone, it’s Adam here. I hope you’re all very well. I’ve just switched off the news. It’s one of my very favourite things to do these days, to switch off the news. I’m sure many of you feel exactly the same way. The conversation I keep having with people, people keep saying to me, it’s all beyond satire. The world in 2026 is beyond satire. I think it’s important, however, folks, not to give up on satire. I’m thinking today of the cartoonist David Low, the great David Low, who was born in Dunedin in 1891. In his obituary in The Guardian, he was described as the dominant cartoonist of the Western world. He was knighted in 1962 and he has two plaques here in London, one in Hampstead and one in Kensington. His cartooning career began in his native New Zealand and continued in Australia where he was once called a bastard to his face by the Aussie Prime Minister. But then high office has often been held by bluff, straight-talking men, or boors as they are sometimes known. Such men hate to be mocked. After World War II, Low’s name was found to be in the so-called black book of personas non grata, public enemies to be arrested after the Nazi invasion of Britain. His gloves-off depictions of the despots did not endear him to the dictators of the 1930s. Low arrived in London in 1919 and worked as a cartoonist on The Star and The Herald, both now defunct newspapers, as well as The Guardian and the London Evening Standard. In 1937, Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels complained to Lord Halifax, the Foreign Secretary, that Low’s work was damaging diplomatic relations between Germany and Britain. Herr Hitler, it seemed, could become rather cross when Low got to work. Strange, don’t you think, that men such as Goebbels and Hitler, with such strong stomachs for genocide, would be so upset at a couple of strokes from a pen? In the modern era, Martin Rowson – I think we live in a terrific golden age of cartooning today – Martin Rowson, whose work you’ll be familiar with from The Guardian, he was quoted as saying, “laughter is a very, very important weapon against dictatorship.” Here he is, he said, “laughter, it needs to be shouted, is one of the things that humans do best, mostly because it makes us feel better. I’ve been convinced for years that laughter is a hardwired evolutionary survival mechanism that helps humans navigate our way through life without going mad with existential terror. That’s why we laugh at all those terrifying things like death, sex, other people, and the disgusting stuff that pours out of our bodies on a daily basis. That’s the basis of the craft of cartooning. This universal capacity to use mockery as a form of social control is one of the main things that makes us human. Crucially, it’s also in defiance of the primary need of the powerful to be taken seriously, often against all the external evidence of their innate absurdity.” Old Mr. Low agreed with him, much more succinct. He said, “I have learned from experience that in the bluff and counter-bluff world of politics, to draw a hostile warlord as a horrible monster is to play his game. What he doesn’t like to be is shown as a silly ass.” During the summertime at London Walks, we have the great pleasure of working with the Rick Steves company. And the Rick Steves company, based in Edmonds in Washington State, famous slogan they have, keep on travelling. It’s a great slogan. Keep on travelling. I’m going to add to that slogan today. Keep on laughing.
That was well put, wasn’t it. Which is exactly what you’d expect – and consistently get from one of brightest stars in the London Walks firmament. Anyway, many thanks, Adam. Please stop back here again real soon. Just a suggestion, maybe stop back and tell us about the new walk that you’re just now putting the finishing touches on.
From the sneak preview you’ve given me, it’s going to be a corker. You and your walkers – you’ve hit one for six.
Ok there you have it folks – down and dusted – your daily London fix. See ya tomorrow.