Jonny Hannah at Greenside Primary School

I first came into contact with Jonny when I contributed some stories about Wylam to his Northumberland Folk project a few years ago; later, Offsprog One and me went to an exhibition of some of the work he made for that project in Hexham.

Jonny was doing a talk on Bawden, Ravilious and an Outsiders View of Englishness at Greenside School in west London. there was also a print fair, and guided tours of the school (designed by Goldfinger, with a mural by Gordon Cullen) as part of the Open House Festival.

It was the talk wot did it though-plus the opportunity to say hello to Jonny.

The tiny school hall was packed with all sorts of interesting stalls, including a Pollocks Toy Museum one, and another where you could get large type set and printed while you waited. We had a quick tea'n'cake, talked to Pollocks man who was eating his packed lunch out of a Tupperware box, relieved ourselves in the miniature and authentically grubby children's toilets, then went to the Year 6 classroom for Jonny's talk.

Blow me, I was sitting next to Emerald's mum, Sally. It was lovely to see her again. 

The talk was entertaining and gently funny. Born and raised in Dunfermline, he talked us through his fascination with Englishness with an accompanying slideshow. Thankfully, Only Fools and Horses wasn't on his list, but the Kinks were, and so was George Orwell. Born in 1971, Jonny is too young to suffer from good-old-days-ism, which was a relief. 

There were some graphic design classics that had been an obvious influence on his illustration/type style. He has contributed a piece to an Edward Bawden exhibition in Bedford, which looks really good and which I must go to. He raised a laugh with his story of taking a model of a six-foot plywood cutout cat in a boxing ring up to the exhibition on the train.

Afterwards, I bought the 12" EP by his band The Postmen from his wife Sharon, who is also an illustrator. Just as we left, who should we bump into but the creative duo behind the Wouldbegoods in the school playground!

It was all so much better that sitting at home watching repeats on the telly, believe me. The little school was a weird gem of the west and even the giant raindrops that accompanied us on the way home were a magical addition to the day.