On 18 March 1959 Fleming had written to Richard Chopping about the cover he had undertaken for Goldfinger, saying that: “The new jacket is quite as big a success as the first one and I do think [Jonathan] Cape have made a splendid job of it”. Once again, Chopping was asked to provide the cover…
Today marks a very special day, for on this day in 1957 Ian Fleming met a young illustrator that was to prove pivotal in the lives of both men and the future of the James Bond novels. That illustrator was Richard Wasey Chopping. We spoke to one of Chopping’s trustees – Jon Lys Turner –…
When artists Richard Chopping and Denis Wirth-Miller died in their nineties, their friend Jon Lys Turner inherited an extensive personal archive. When he began to look through it, he discovered letters and other material that revealed Chopping and Wirth-Miller to be a previously missing link in the twentieth-century art world and pivotal figures in the…
by MW Bewick It is only a matter of time. Sooner or later, if you get talking to the locals in Wivenhoe, Essex, someone will namedrop Richard Chopping: “Oh, Dicky and Denis,” they will say. “You don’t know about Dicky and Denis? If you’d been here when they were here… Wivenhoe was much more, well,…
Heads, Bodies and Legs is a children’s book written and illustrated by the late Richard Chopping and Dennis Wirth-Miller. Mike Simkin writes to The Guardian in 2008: “Having been one of his students at Colchester School of Art (1958-62). Nobody gave more encouragement with their work and spirit for life. He never spoke of his illustration work…
You Only Live Twice was published in the UK on 16 March 1964, by Jonathan Cape and cost sixteen shillings. There were 62,000 pre-orders for the book, a significant increase over the 42,000 advance orders for the hardback first edition of On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. Richard Chopping, cover artist for The Spy Who Loved Me, was engaged for the design. On 17…
Artistic Licence Renewed 