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 history books, such as After the War (2000), Best Mates (2014) and Changing Times (2015) bring to life an aspect of New Zealand’s past. Readers can recognise their own country in these pages.

 

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 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 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 the 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