01/09/2025

Firstly we received this sonnet from poet Alexandra Wilde bemoaning the vanishing of her namesake from the Daily Telegraph.

A Sonnet to Plead for Alex’s Safe Return  

I have looked in hope but, alas, in vain
For Alex to feature in our lives again
But now I’ve had this happy thought
That he could once again be brought
Back from those far-flung secret mews
To delight us with his sardonic views.
It may be an old, pre-used conceit
But from so long ago, could it bear a repeat?
 
And instead of affirming that nothing was real,
It was just a bad dream - all quite surreal!
Can some benevolent avatar
Transport him home from that nightmare star?
And not to confuse with words more general:
Please bring him back from that place ephemeral.
 

Another reader, Matthew Demwell, chose to communicate his choice of his all-time favourite Alex cartoons in the form of a pastiche of Rodgers and Hammerstein. Can you identify the cartoons referred to?

My Favourite Strips

Alex scolds Clive for his korma malarkey;
Ditched rice wine makes Orientals feel sarky;
Coughing up fifties as uncalled-for tips;
These are a few of my favourite strips.

Fun interruptus results in head-banging;
Vince is perplexed by some sly rhyming slanging;
Clive’s not resigned Bridget’s signed his cheque-slips;
These are a few of my favourite strips.

When Alexit’s
Worse than Brexit,
When I’m feeling sad,
I simply remember my favourite strips
And Fabergé makes me glad.
(Even though she’s not in any of them.)

Our Monday Readers’s Favourite Cartoon is proving a popular feature, so if you’ve got a suggestion for a strip that you feel should be included, do email us (it doesn’t have to be in the form of satirical verses).

If you’re missing Alex, we are still taking cartoon commissions (for Christmas cards, birthdays, retirement presents etc) events, Russell is writing his Substack blog and Charles is doing Celeb again in Private Eye.