David Henshaw's cartoon career started in a small way with a Christmas gift to a dying Southland farmer. By the time the man's funeral was over, the idea for a series was born.
Henshaw's day job was as a land valuer.
His familiarity with New Zealand farmers, their way of life, their laconic sense of humour, found its way into cartoons about "Jock", a kind of representative farmer with an easygoing, laid-back view of the world.
The cartoons appeared fortnightly in the New Zealand Farmer for more than three decades.
The humour is universal. Even though few townies have experience of working on the land, the human characters and their animal companions speak to them.
Alongside the cartoons there are lovely watercolour paintings.
You can skip through the book in half an hour, but the drawings are full of detail and worth much more than a leisurely browse.
- Mike Crowl is a Dunedin author, musician and composer.
