Morten Morland, who has been drawing covers for The Spectator magazine for the last 15 years, announced on Twitter that he was leaving the weekly magazine.
It’s been a fabulous gig, working with great people. It’s been increasingly hard to fit the job in around my commitments for The Times, so with the change of ownership and editor, it seemed like a good time to move on.
He noted that until a replacement artist is found, he may be tasked with more covers. He also said a political cartoonist or illustrator interested in the gig should contact the magazine.
Last month The Spectator was purchased by British financier Sir Paul Marshall after a failed bid by an Abu Dhabi-backed investment group was blocked by the UK government. The government passed legislation banning foreign governments from owning British newspapers and news magazines.
Given that a 15-year run is no small thing, I asked Morten to provide his first, last, and favorite cover. The last request is unfair as it is like asking which of your children is your favorite. He kindly provided the first and last (as noted ‘last’ certainly won’t be the last).
He also provided several of his favorites based on “how much fun they were to draw, rather than how good they were.” The three below were his top-of-mind covers for fun to draw.
Another moment was when he was asked to do the Christmas cover, which previously fell to Peter Brooks.
I couldn’t compete with his painting ability, so when I was asked to do one, I realised I had to take a different approach to them than he had. I was doing my annual round-up of the year animation for The Times, so I began doing the Christmas covers as versions of that. Full of nods to people and events from that year.
Another challenging moment came in 2019 when Notre Dame burned.
I got a call from the editor saying that we really ought to have something on that story given it was the Easter issue. A striking picture had just been published of the destruction inside with the cross inside, so I was asked to do a version of that. But I only had a couple of hours to do it before the magazine went to print. It was a frantic effort, painting with the hair drying going to get it dried in time, but got it done, and the result was one of the most widely share covers I’ve ever done.
Lastly, this cover, Brexit Butterfly, was the most viral of his covers and as he notes, he was asked to illustrate an idea supporting Brexit – something he was opposed to.
Fraser Nelson [editor of The Spectator] called me to say that they were going to come out in favour of Brexit. He knew how strongly I felt for Remain, so he actually offered to get someone else to come in and do that cover. I’ve never looked at the cover as a reflection of my own opinions though, so I declined treated the issue like any other. Trying my best to convey what they wanted to say. Sadly it was a bit too effective!
Morten is also the political cartoonist for The Times and The Sunday Times. As such he’s won several awards over the years. He won the Political Cartoon Association Cartoon of the Year Award (2005, 2008), Cartoon Art Trust Political Cartoonist of the Year (2009), and recently The Press Awards’ Cartoonist of the Year (2015, 2020, 2023).