Sip! Swallow! - Tapa blanda

Sir Arthur Herbert was born in 1890 and educated at Winchester and Oxford. Having achieved a first in Jurisprudence, he then joined the Royal Navy and served both at Gallipoli and in France during the First World War. He was called to the Bar in 1918, and went on to become a Member of Parliament for Oxford University from 1935 to 1950. Throughout his life A P Herbert was a prolific writer, delighting his many readers with his witty observations and social satires in the columns of Punch. He was the creator of a host of colourful characters - notably Topsy, Albert Haddock and Mr Honeybubble - and wrote novels, poems, musicals, essays, sketches and articles. He was also a tireless campaigner for reform, a denouncer of injustice and a dedicated conserver of the Thames. By the time of his death in 1971, he had gained a considerable following and was highly regarded in literary circles. J M Barrie, Hilaire Belloc, Rudyard Kipling and John Galsworthy all delighted in his work, and H G Wells applauded him saying, 'You are the greatest of great men. You can raise delightful laughter and that is the only sort of writing that has real power over people like me.'