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Stefan Slater and David Macfadyen
the Political Cartoons of
Derso and kelen: Years of

Hope and Despair

London: Lund Humphries, 2023

interview with Stefan Slater

and David macfadyen

DIVA: You are both medical doctors, how did you get Kelen. Could you please tell us a little how it all
interested in political cartoons came about?
David: Older DIVA readers may recall seeing, as I did, Derso David: In the Spring of 2019, my wife was
and Kelen’s caricatures of politicians of the inter-war years exhibiting at an arts, crafts & collectors exhibition
in the Brasserie Bavaria in rue du Rhône. Later in my WHO in Edinburgh, an annual event organised
career, on visits to the Palais des Nations, I saw in the Bar de by Stefan, who was showing a collection of
la Presse menu cards that the two artists produced annually illustrated books of the inter-war era. I strolled
for the International Association of Journalists Accredited over to Stefan, whom I was meeting for the first
to the League of Nations. After retiring back to Scotland, time, and asked, ‘Do you, by chance, have any
the descendants of Sir Eric Drummond, the League’s first cartoons by Derso and Kelen?’ He was probably
Secretary-General, kindly allowed me to access family the only person in the United Kingdom who
papers for a book that my co-authors and I subsequently could respond, ‘Well, yes’. A few days later, he
published on Eric Drummond and his Legacies: The League showed me four Derso & Kelen portfolios.
of Nations and the Beginnings of Global Governance. These
contained an unpublished cartoon of Derso and Kelen. Stefan: After meeting David and after his co-
authored book, Eric Drummond and his Legacies
Stefan: I have been collecting books for nearly 50-years, was published in late 2019, he drew my attention
for many years focussing on the literature, poetry and to an international conference on the League the
especially the avant-garde art generated by both world following year. We presented a paper, ‘Visualising
wars. What particularly intrigues me is the work of the the League of Nations’, showing and analysing
cartoonists and caricaturists on both sides of the conflicts, the work of various cartoonists, including Derso
their graphic art reflecting something of the differences and Kelen. This was subsequently published in
in national character as they used their skills in political early 2021 in the UK art quarterly, Illustration.
comment and in war propaganda. In the course of collecting However, there was so much more we wanted to
this material, I became interested in political cartoons in say and to show about Derso and Kelen that we
general, especially in the insight and foresight that many decided we should write an illustrated book about
cartoonists of the interwar years revealed about a possible them. Very little had previously been published
further world war. Then, since 15-years ago, after coming on them despite the international reputation
across Emery Kelen’s superb autobiography, Peace in Their they had in their day, with the notable exception,
Time: Men Who Led Us In and Out of War, 1914-1945, about Marit, of their inclusion in your own book on the
those interwar years and the activities and personalities of League, which we quote on pages 15 & 129, and
League of Nations, I have been collecting everything I can one chapter in a 1932 book on caricaturists.
find by or on Kelen and his artistic partner, Alois Derso.
DIVA: The book is well documented and richly
DIVA: You have written a beautiful illustrated and illustrated with the cartoons. How did you find
interesting book about two political cartoonists, Derso and all these cartoons?

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