Paul is known for bringing Roy of the Rovers to life with his 'comic art realism' and has gained a huge reputation across the world for his excellence in this area being dubbed 'The Master of Movement'. He says in an interview with the former official website manager Mark Towers in July 2006.
"I’m a Spurs fan and when I was down at Tottenham, I used to go and watch training. There was Danny Blanchflower, the Captain of the double team. He was talking to Bill Nicholson and I heard him, he might have been injured that day, or it might have been passed his time for playing, I’m not sure.…but he was stood nearby and he said to Nicholson "He thinks he’s Roy of the Rovers". What was interesting was he said "He thinks he’s Roy of the Rovers". He never said his name, not Roy Race or Roy of Melchester Rovers – he was Roy of the Rovers, I suddenly thought - I made that, I suddenly thought he’s real, he’s real, he’s come alive – it’s not just the kids who are reading it, but the dads are as well. That was definitely when I was doing it. This is real Roy of the Rovers stuff!"
Paul was born on 11th March 1934 at Love Lane, Tottenham and was a football fanatic from the beginning. Even before he could walk he was taken to watch Tottenham Hotspur play. His mother told him that every time a Spurs goal was scored, every window in the house shook.
With no great emphasis on academic lessons, by the age of ten Paul could neither read nor write, but had gained many prizes for the school and had drawn a variety of special birthday, Christmas and wedding cards for his teachers. When Paul failed his 11 plus for the second time, his father decided to take away his pens and pencils with the promise that when he could read and write then they would be returned to him. Six months later Paul got his pencils back - he came second in a class of 40.
In 1952 when Paul was still a schoolboy, His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh wrote a letter praising him for his artwork – this letter appeared in the National press and launched Paul's career. Sir Winston Churchill also played a major part with an inspiring conversation that drove Paul's artistic talent. In 1955, the year of his resignation, Sir Winston sat and drank coffee with Paul, who presented him with a likeable portrait, which Churchill signed in appreciation. This portrait currently hangs in the Bernard Sunley Charitable Foundation.
During his school days Paul was drawing for comics such as ‘Eagle’ , ‘TV21’ and of course ‘Roy of the Rovers’. He left college with a teaching diploma in Art and Design.
As mentioned earlier, Paul first drew the Roy of the Rovers story in the 13th April 1963 edition and drew the story on and off for a number of years that followed. As well as bringing 'Roy of the Rovers' to life, Paul also continued drawing his 'Hey Ref!' strip, which had been launched in 'The People' newspaper in 1958. It was later to become the world renowned 'You Are The Ref!' This appeared in Roy of the Rovers Annuals in the 1960's and later the Shoot magazine and annuals in the 1970's. The 'You Are The Ref' strip was revived for 'The Observer' in 2006 and appeared on the BBC Sport website as part of the coverage for Euro 2008.
From the 1960’s to the 1980’s, Paul's art featured in almost every national newspaper in the United Kingdom. He devised and illustrated instructional based art for The Mirror, Daily Express, The Sun, The Telegraph and The Times. During this period he became famous for the movement that he expressed in his drawings and achieved many accolades from the world’s top sport personalities, who christened him ‘The Master of Movement’. As mentioned at the beginning, this is most relevant for his drawings of Roy of the Rovers.
Paul is the author and illustrator of over 20 books that have sold worldwide, including the Peter Alliss instructional book ‘Easier Golf’ which was reprinted 10 times. He also illustrated the world famous ‘Gary Player Golf Class’ which appeared in over 300 newspapers worldwide and became the largest syndicated sports feature in the world. He has spent much of his life in the United States, teaming up with Mark McCormack at IMG in the 1960’s and he has since been contracted to work on various sporting projects with Coca Cola, Adidas, Umbro, Hershey, Budweiser, Barclays Bank and Fuji. Paul has also drawn for the NBA, MLB, NFL and Nascar. To top all of this he was commissioned to draw for Michael Jordan through his licence company, Upper Deck.
Throughout his career people around the world have been amazed by not only the perfect facial accuracy in his drawing, but also the exciting movement that he captures in his art. He recalls a meeting with famous Disney animator Milt Neil who worked on such classics as Snow White, Pinocchio and Dumbo. Milt told Paul that it took 20 drawings to produce the movement that Paul captures in one.
Paul has expertly driven his career through all of the major sports from Boxing to Soccer to NFL to Golf. He has worked with the top stars in all the aforementioned - Gary Player, Peter Alliss, Lee Trevino, Sugar Ray Robinson, Oscar De La Hoya, Paul Gascoigne, Gary Lineker, George Best, Pele and so the list goes on. His love of sport and football in particular is epitomised when in the 1980's, he even dressed up as DJ Bear, the Panda of Peace to help pacify football hooligans and spread love in the game.
His book, published in September 2005 titled: ‘Double Bill’ – The Bill Nicholson Story with co-author Alan Mullery, the former Spurs and England International, contains much of his artwork during his fifty years illustrating sport. To commemorate 50 years of 'You Are The Ref!', a book was published by the Observer in 2006. This is a brilliant compilation of how this strip has developed since the 1950's and it show's how the artwork is still so brilliantly up to date and 'realistic'!.
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