The Takoradi Run  Bob Kerr

 

The Takoradi Run  
Bob Kerr (text and ill.)
Bateman Books (2026)
Graphic novel, 80 pages, 
Paperback    
ISBN 978 1 77689 154 2 

 

 Bob Kerr is an unsung hero of New Zealand book illustration and visual storytelling. His three Terry Teo comics (created with Stephen Ballantyne) are kiwi classics. I still have a scrapbook I made when Terry and the Last Moa was serialised in The Listener before publication. As part of Christchurch’s 1998 Books and Beyond Festival, Bob Kerr and Margaret Mahy created the world’s biggest book, The Word-eater, set in the then Gloucester Street-based Central Library. The huge pages of text and white spaces were set up in the children’s section, so that Bob could paint in the illustrations in the very place where some of the story was set. It was a stunning spectacle, so I took my granddaughter, Poy Ling, to watch the left-handed genius at work.  (Nearly one-third of all Kerrs are left-handed.) Bob kindly allowed us both to help him paint some leaves, so do go to The Word-eater website and admire this collaboration:  

The Word-Eater by Margaret Mahy | Christchurch City Libraries Ngā Kete Wānanga o Ōtautahi

 

Bob Kerr’s wonderful illustrated history books, such as After the War (2000), Best Mates (2014) and Changing Times (2015) bring to life aspects of New Zealand's past. Young readers can see their own country's history in recognisable 

 

More recently Bob has pioneered a way to tell a family story in a mixture of pictures, facts and imagination. Jack and Sandy (2023) was the poignant, funny and heart-warming graphic novel of his father’s wartime convoy experiences. Now Bob Kerr has created an even more exciting and colourful graphic novel about the black sheep of his family, Uncle Ron Witcombe.

 

 

‘Ron was never mentioned around the dinner table,’ recalls Bob, ‘Ron wasn’t always proper. He was a lad on the make.’

Bob has therefore had to use his imagination in places to join up the stories that Ron told him in his old age. Rescued from a dull office job by joining the Air Force, Ron became a navigator on a Blenheim bomber.

The pictures in this book don’t just illustrate Ron’s story; they also extend it and allow the reader to follow events and spot their significance. The illustrations of a night raid over Germany show the bombers in the dark skies but they also show a pair of refugee women pulling their possessions along in a handcart. In the final frames, Ron’s plane heads home through the searchlights, while far below lies the wrecked cart.  After each night-bombing raid, there are several empty chairs at breakfast in the mess. ‘Reading’ the pictures gives an extra layer of meaning to Ron’s laconic account of flying in the obsolete Blenheims. ‘We weren’t very successful … Blenheims were shot down by the dozen.’

 After serving on both day and night bombing raids, Ron was transferred to Takoradi.

‘Is that in Norfolk?’

‘Africa.’

Takoradi, in what is now Ghana, was the staging-post in an amazing aerial supply chain that shuttled aircraft to Egypt for the Allies fighting against Rommel in the Western Desert. Planes were shipped to Takoradi, assembled and then flown across the vastness of Africa to Cairo., Ron’s skills as a navigator were vital. On Ron's first flight from Takoradi, their bomber guides six Hurricane fighters in a series of long overland hops to Cairo.

Ghana was once known as the Gold Coast and gold was still being mined there. Ron soon found himself involved in smuggling gold ingots to Cairo. What follows is exciting, intriguing and illegal. ‘Did I feel guilty? I wasn’t really sure,’ says Ron. Then the military police come knocking on his door. Things become even more exciting, intriguing and illegal.

 Bob’s target audience is teenaged boys who don’t want to read but this book has appeal for adults (and girls) as well. There are plenty of period jokes such as the armed forces’ uniforms coming in just two sizes: ‘too big and too small.’ Peter McIntyre, the war artist, even pops in to do a lively sketch of Ron. Then there is the scene where Ron is intrigued by the crowded terrace of the famous Shepheards Hotel.

‘Who are all these people?’ asks Ron.

‘The usual suspects…’ replies Mr Fish, the Dutch jeweller, who is Ron’s partner in crime. Young readers will enjoy scrutinising the double-page illustration of the terrace to decide exactly which ones are the spies, double agents and arms dealers but they will need an adult to explain Mr Fish’s quip.

 Bob Kerr has not just created an interesting, lively story that appeals to all ages; he has provided an unexpected insight into how people behaved in wartime. His researched has enabled him to produce atmospheric illustrations of every aspect of Ron’s life, from sailing P-class yachts in Evans Bay to strolling through the mud-walled city of Kano. (‘It’s not Lambton Quay,’ says Ron.) Bob even made visits to Cairo and Takoradi which have resulted in some richly detailed scenes such as the fishing boats at Takoradi, the slave-fort in Axim and the bustling markets of wartime Cairo. There are even maps showing areas Ron visited in Africa and Cairo, as well as contemporary documents, advertisements and letters.

 The Takoradi  Run is an enthralling book which can be read for pleasure or used as an entry point for further historical research. It is also a gift to future generations from a very artful dodger, sympathetically brought back to life by his talented nephew.

  Trevor Agnew 

21 April 2026 [Review 3826]

 

P.S. If you want to know more about Bob Kerr, try this Spinoff article, and video where fellow artist Toby Morris talks with Bob Kerr:

https://thespinoff.co.nz/books/02-11-2019/terry-teo-the-great-new-zealand-comic

Changing Times: The Story of a New Zealand Town and its Newspaper Bob Kerr

Changing Times: The Story of a New Zealand Town and its Newspaper

Bob Kerr
Potton and Burton NZ 
Hardback NZ$30
Paperback NZ$20
Reviewed by Trevor Agnew

Changing Times: The Story of a New Zealand Town and its Newspaper

Newspapers are the first draft of our history. Talented artist-author Bob Kerr has used the story of a small-town newspaper to create a miniature history of New Zealand. When printers James and Mary McPherson come ashore in 1840 they print the first issue of the New Zealand Times on their hand-operated Albion Press, recording the treaty signing at Waitangi. 

What follows is a series of snapshots of their family, their township and their newspaper through the decades, as recorded by the newspaper.

Wars, weddings and new technology are all experienced by the townspeople and reported in the news columns and advertisements. When the Great War erupts, we share the experience of scanning the paper’s casualty lists for the names of family members.
History marches on, and the town loses its post office and railway, while the paper is taken over by a media group and closed. Fortunately Bob Kerr has created a splendid website at www.mattsnewspaper.blogspot.co.nz where the NZ Times (and our history) lives on.

Trevor Agnew

October 2015

This review was first published in a Fairfax NZ newspaper on 28 November 2015

A Trans-Tasman Picture Book Round-up 2014

A Trans-Tasman Picture Book Round-up 2014

 

By Trevor Agnew

 

Incy Wincy Spider ill by Karen Erasmus (2014) Lothian, NZ$20

Doggy Ditties from A-Z  Jo van Dam, ill. Myles Lawford (2014) Scholastic NZ, $19.50

Pigs Might Fly  Brett Avison, ill. Janine Dawson (2014) Five Mile Press, $24.95

Mrs Mo's Monster by Paul Beavis (2014) Gecko, pb NZ 19.99 [hb NZ$34.99]

Blackie the Fisher cat by Janet Pereira, ill. Gabriella Klepatski, (2014) Craig Potton Publishing, Nelson NZ,  NZ$19.99 [hb NZ$29.99]

Best Mates by Philippa Werry, ill. Bob Kerr (2014) New Holland, NZ$19.99

 Trans-Tasman Picture Book Round-Up

  There have been many good illustrated versions of children’s rhymes published recently. Unfortunately Incy Wincy Spider is not one of them.  The author, who has wisely remained anonymous, has expanded the rhyme so that the luckless spider encounters disaster in every part of the house. Since this is an Australian book, a toilet seat encounter is included. It would all be harmless fun, like Karen Erasmus’s illustrations, but the writer has a tin ear and many of the clunky lines lack the rhythm of the original.  

“The Incy Wincy Spider climbed up the sandcastle wall.
The Kids started to dig and the castle walls did fall.”
This disappointing book is not good enough for children.
 

Jo van Dam’s rhymes in Doggy Ditties from A-Z are much better. Avoiding any suggestion of doggerel, she has created 26 droll verses about various canine breeds from Attenpinscher to Zuchon.  There is even an X for the Xoloitzcuintlil (Mexican Hairless):

“This unusual hairless dog walks round in the nude.
If it were a person, we would think it rather rude.”
The witty rhymes – some of them limericks – also deal with more familiar dogs, including the Boxer, Fox Terrier, Labrador and Great Dane, with a great deal of doggy nibbling, dribbling and digging.
Myles Lawford’s illustrations capture the personalities of the various dogs in his lively colour illustrations.

Pigs Might Fly by Aussie writer Brett Avison (author of A Bigger Digger) carries its plot in its title. When the farm is flooded, most of the animals are driven off to high ground but Ted and Bryn are trapped. They hope to escape in the farm’s microlight aircraft but then find that six piglets and a hen still have to be rescued.  Bryn’s very funny solution provides an amusing ending with a witty pop-up illustration. Avison’s verse has funny rhymes and his tale moves as fast as the flood-waters, while Janine Dawson’s colour pictures capture the droll chaos of the farm evacuation.

Mrs Mo's Monster, written and illustrated by Paul Beavis, a New Zealand website designer, is a marvellous read-aloud book for parents and grandparents. Mrs Mo’s home is rudely invaded by a monster which leaves a trail of destruction.
“I am a monster and what I do
is crunch, munch and chew,”
Mrs Mo subtly diverts the unruly monster into cake-making and preparing a surprise for Mr Mo. Young readers (or listeners) will enjoy the fun, even as the crafty parable gives them a subtle lesson in the importance of manners. Beavis’s illustrations are bold and full of impact, while the text is skilfully designed with dramatic bold lettering for the enjoyably noisy bits.

Blackie the Fisher Cat is a charming illustrated tale by Janet Pereira about Grandpop’s remarkable fishing holiday. As shown in Gabriella Klepatski’s atmospheric colour illustrations, Grandpop takes his caravan to a motor camp on the coast. When he goes out fishing, a stray black cat accompanies him, leading him to the best spot and accepting fish livers as his share of the day’s catch. Grandpop enjoys the cat’s company and is sorry to leave him behind at the motor camp. The cat, however, has a surprise in store for Grandpop. This is a sweet story that independent readers will enjoy.

Like Blackie the Fisher Cat, Philippa Werry’s Best Mates is a New Zealand book. Three boys from the West Coast, Harry Joe and the un-named narrator are the ‘best mates’ of the title, playing together, attending school together and joining the army together in 1914.  Bob Kerr’s meticulously-researched colour illustrations show the three pals embarking for their great adventure, visiting the Pyramids, training in Egypt, then sailing from Lemnos and landing at Gallipoli. “Harry, Joe and I stuck together. We cooked together and ate together. We shared the same trench. Everyone knew we were mates.” In simple unsentimental prose, the story of Gallipoli unfolds with its grim trench warfare, extremes of temperature, privations and illness. Tragedy strikes for the trio, with the death of Harry. “The chaplain had to be quick because of the snipers.” The story continues with the recognition of defeat and the evacuation of the peninsula. “Our feet were muffled in cloths. We didn’t cough or talk or even whisper.” Best Mates doesn’t end with this defeat.  The survivors return to civilian life and raise families but are always wistfully aware of the absence of their ‘best mate.’  Decades later, as old men, they return to Anzac Cove and visit the New Zealand graveyard. ‘He was in a big cemetery with hundreds of other Anzacs…It was still far away but now it felt as if he was among friends.

Bob Kerr’s illustrations are as spare and graceful as Werry’s prose. One double-spread illustration shows soldiers digging two trenches with pick and shovel, rifles close at hand. It is only at second glance that it becomes clear that the soldiers in one trench are Anzacs while in the other they are Turkish. 

Best Mates is a moving picture book, with a fictional tale that rings true, and which brings to life a key event in our national history.
 

Trevor Agnew

Note: This review originally appeared Your Weekend magazine (Fairfax NZ) in such newspapers as The Press and Dominion Post on 23 August 2014