A Short Biography Ralph Steadman has been working for nearly 40 years. Ten years ago as artist in residence at the Exeter Festival he was asked by the Festival Director, Richard Gregson-Williams to collaborate with the composer Richard Harvey and John Williams, the guitarist. PLAGUE AND THE MOONFLOWER was the result, following a trip to Egypt and an encounter with the work of Margaret Mee who for most of her life painted the exotic flora of the Amazon Rainforests. Ralph started as a cartoonist and through the years diversified into many fields of creativity. His paintings and collages include two war series, the Falklands and the Gulf and he has continued to use collage and paint in his political cartoons for the New Statesman and more recently, in The Independent. His exhibition commissions have included sculptures and, a collaborative automation for the travelling show entitled ‘Devious Devices’. He has also produced silkscreen prints and etchings, collaborating with Peacock Printmakers in Aberdeen and more recently with Joe Petro III in Kentucky. These include a series of etchings on writers from Tolstoy to T.S.Eliot, ‘shot’ portraits of William Burroughs and Hunter S. Thompson and a series entitled ‘Cabinet of the Mind’, and ‘Leaders’. He has just finished his third television collaboration for ‘Leviathan’ on BBC2, which includes graphic video sequences and acting several historical roles. His illustrated works in which he adopted the persona of his subject resulted in ‘Sigmund Freud’, ‘Leonardo’ and ‘The Big I Am’. These were natural progressions from his interpretations of the classic books ‘Alice in Wonderland’, ‘Alice Through the Looking Glass’, ‘Treasure Island’ and later ‘Animal Farm’. His books of collected works include ‘Between the Eyes’, ‘Scar Strangled Banger’ and ‘Gonzo the Art’. He has also written and illustrated children’s books. In 1970 he met the writer Hunter S. Thompson which led to the now legendary ‘Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas’ and a long journalistic collaboration. His portrait of Charlie Chaplin is included in the Royal Mail Millenium series of stamps and he travelled the vineyards of the world for Oddbins. He is presently working on a theatre set for the Royal Ballet. For further information on Ralph Steadman, and further examples of his work, visit his website, www.ralphsteadman.com.