EXTRACTS: Illustrators issue 10 © 2015 Book Palace Books (96 PAGES in Full edition)

41 Throughout this ‘wilderness period’ Pat Nicolle continued to enjoy drawing and worked at his technique. Art was certainly in his blood and it should perhaps be mentioned that Pat’s brother, Jack Nicolle, four years his senior, was an artist, producing a good deal of work for Shooting Times and illustrating many titles for Oxford University Press. Pat’s opportunity to draw for a living came by way of an advertisement he found in the Daily Telegraph when he was nineteen years old. A popular woodworking magazine wanted an assistant artist-contributor. Pat applied and got the job, at a wage of two pounds a week. For that lowly sum he was expected to write articles and do the accompanying drawings. He stayed with the magazine for eight years, during which time his worth had been noted and his wage more than doubled to four pounds ten shillings. However, he wanted to do more than draw diagrams on how to build chairs and tables and, during his free time, he kept busy with freelance work for furniture catalogues and working for Odhams Press, contributing to their children’s magazines and to their factual weekly, Modern World, for which he drew a series of 'Home Guard Training Charts '. In common with many other young artists, during the formative period ABOVE: More medieval mayhem from the brush of Pat Nicolle, as he depicts a scene from the 100 Years War for the children's weekly Look and Learn . Nicolle was a founder member of the Arms and Armour Society .