posted on 23 Jun 2016

Peter Firmin

Peter Firmin is quite simply a legend. This is the co-creator of Bagpuss,The Clangers and Pogles Wood - all of them classics of their genre. But above all this, along with his business partner, Oliver Postgate, he created the peerless Noggin The Nog in the late 1960s. 

Born in 1928, Firmin trained as an artist at Colchester School of Art and later, in the late 40s and early 50s, he was at the Central School of Art and Design in London where he specialised in stained glass and did some casual teaching. While he was at Central he met Oliver Postgate who was looking for an artist to illustrate a television programme he was planning. They hit it off together and between them created Smallfilms.

Noggin The Nog started life on television right at the end of the 50s and was an immediate success. Firmin is thought to have based the characters on the famous Lewis Chessmen and along with Postgate they created Noggin, King of the Northmen. They are not Vikings but the similarities are obvious - however, the differences are important. The Nogs are essentially decent, reasonable and community-minded - with the exception of Noggin's constant nemesis, Nogbad the Bad.

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Postgate and Firmin developed Noggin into a series of wonderful books that capitalised on their television popularity. Firmin's creations are simply wonderful and capture perfectly the full cast of characters. It's an important part of the success of these books that everything is kept simple and there are no over-elaborate compositions. In a few strokes of pen and ink the world of the Northmen takes full shape and Noggin's adventures take on a rounded existence. What I really love is the way Firmin hints at the artistic heritage of the Viking and Celtic traditions without ever mimicking them or creating a simple pastiche. His use of colour is subtle and sparing and work particularly well with the small, square format of the book itself. These are little jewels that any youngster would treasure.

The series of 12 hardbacks are very hard to find in the original but thankfully they have been reprinted and so you can get your hands on them without too much trouble. However, I really have to say that the reprints simply never quite capture the delicate magic of the originals and if you can afford to get one or two of the first editions I'd strongly recommend you do because you simply wont be disappointed.

Terry Potter

June 2016