Richard Wasey Chopping (14 April 1917 – 17 April 2008) was a British illustrator and author best known for painting the

dust jacket The dust jacket (sometimes book jacket, dust wrapper or dust cover) of a book is the detachable outer cover, usually made of paper and printed with text and illustrations. This outer cover has folded flaps that hold it to the front and back boo ...

s of Ian Fleming's

James Bond The ''James Bond'' series focuses on a fictional Secret Intelligence Service, British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short-story collections. Since Fleming's death in 19 ...

novels starting with '' From Russia, with Love'' (1957).

Early life

Chopping was born in

Colchester Colchester ( ) is a city in Essex, in the East of England. It had a population of 122,000 in 2011. The demonym is Colcestrian. Colchester occupies the site of Camulodunum, the first major city in Roman Britain and its first capital. Colc ...

, Essex and educated at

Gresham's School Gresham's School is a public school (English independent day and boarding school) in Holt, Norfolk, England, one of the top thirty International Baccalaureate schools in England. The school was founded in 1555 by Sir John Gresham as a free ...

, Holt.

Illustrator

He painted in the ''

trompe-l'œil ''Trompe-l'œil'' ( , ; ) is an artistic term for the highly realistic optical illusion of three-dimensional space and objects on a two-dimensional surface. ''Trompe l'oeil'', which is most often associated with painting, tricks the viewer into ...

'' style, creating a realistic and almost three-dimensional appearance. Among his illustrations are nine covers from 1957 to 1966 for James Bond books by Ian Fleming and the cover of John Gardner's first Bond continuation novel, ''

Licence Renewed ''Licence Renewed'', first published in 1981, is the first novel by John Gardner featuring Ian Fleming's secret agent, James Bond. It was the first proper James Bond novel (not counting novelizations and a faux biography) since Kingsley Amis's ...

'' (1981).

Book covers

*''Alde Estuary: The Story of a Suffolk River'' (1952; Norman Adlard & Co) *''

The Saturday Book ''The Saturday Book'' was an annual miscellany, published from 1941 to 1975, reaching 34 volumes. It was edited initially by Leonard Russell and from 1952 by John Hadfield. A final compilation, ''The Best of the Saturday Book'', was published i ...

'' (1955; Hutchinson) *'' From Russia, with Love'' (1957; Jonathan Cape) *''The Tenth

Aldeburgh Festival The Aldeburgh Festival of Music and the Arts is an English arts festival devoted mainly to classical music. It takes place each June in the Aldeburgh area of Suffolk, centred on Snape Maltings Concert Hall. History of the Aldeburgh Festival T ...

Programme Book'' (1957) *'' Goldfinger'' (1959; Jonathan Cape) *'' For Your Eyes Only'' (1960; Jonathan Cape) *'' Thunderball'' (1961; Jonathan Cape) *'' The Spy Who Loved Me'' (1962; Jonathan Cape) *''

The Fourth of June ''The Fourth of June'' is the first novel by David Benedictus. The novel was considered controversial when published in 1962 as it describes scenes of violent bullying at Eton College, unrestrained class warfare and suggestions of schoolboy sex ...

'' (1962; Anthony Blond) but only the hardback edition *'' On Her Majesty's Secret Service'' (1963; Jonathan Cape) *'' You Only Live Twice'' (1964; Jonathan Cape) *'' The Man with the Golden Gun'' (1965; Jonathan Cape) *''The Fly'' (1965; Secker and Warburg) *''

Octopussy and The Living Daylights ''Octopussy and The Living Daylights'' (sometimes published as ''Octopussy'') is the 14th and final James Bond book written by Ian Fleming in the Bond series. The book is a collection of short stories published posthumously in the United Ki ...

'' (1966; Jonathan Cape) *''The Ring'' (1967; Secker and Warburg) *''The Last Dodo'' (1967; Farrar, Straus and Giroux) *''The Thirty-Second

of Music & the Arts Programme Book'' (1979) *''

'' (1981; Jonathan Cape)

Author

During the 1940s, Chopping also established himself as an author and illustrator of natural history and

children's books A child ( : children) is a human being between the stages of birth and puberty, or between the developmental period of infancy and puberty. The legal definition of ''child'' generally refers to a minor, otherwise known as a person younge ...

. His early work includes ''Butterflies in Britain'' (1943), which was drawn directly on the lithographic plates, ''A Book of Birds'' (1944), ''The Old Woman and the Pedlar'' (1944), ''The Tailor and the Mouse'' (1944), ''Wild Flowers'' (1944), '' Heads, Bodies & Legs'' with Denis Wirth-Miller (1946), and the collection of short stories ''Mr Postlethwaite's Reindeer'' (1945). Chopping's first novel, ''The Fly'' (Secker & Warburg, 1965) was recommended to its publisher by

Angus Wilson Sir Angus Frank Johnstone-Wilson, CBE (11 August 191331 May 1991) was an English novelist and short story writer. He was one of England's first openly gay authors. He was awarded the 1958 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for '' The Middle Age o ...

, where David Farrar found it "a perfectly disgusting concoction". It was edited by Giles Gordon, who later wrote that he was determined to like the novel, hoping that "more, and no doubt better, books would follow. ''The Fly'' was indeed disgusting." Gordon found Chopping "most fastidious" and his book "sufficiently sordid to appeal to voyeurs, and if Chopping were to adorn it with one of his famous dust-jackets it could be a ''succès de scandale''; and so it proved."Gordon, Giles, ''Aren't We Due a Royalty Statement?'' (1993) Chopping's second novel, ''The Ring'' (1967), was more mundane and much less successful. His short story ''The Eagle'' appears in the anthology ''Lie Ten Nights Awake'' (1967, ed. Herbert Van Thal).

Private life

Chopping's life partner was the landscape painter Denis Wirth-Miller (born 27 November 1915, died 27 October 2010

The two were the first couple to register a

Civil Partnership A civil union (also known as a civil partnership) is a legally recognized arrangement similar to marriage, created primarily as a means to provide recognition in law for same-sex couples. Civil unions grant some or all of the rights of marriage ...

in Colchester. They lived in

Wivenhoe Wivenhoe ( ) is a town and civil parish in north-eastern Essex, England, approximately south-east of Colchester. Historically Wivenhoe village, on the banks of the River Colne, and Wivenhoe Cross, on the higher ground to the north, were two ...

for over sixty years, and were the founders of an artist community which counted

Francis Bacon Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Alban (; 22 January 1561 – 9 April 1626), also known as Lord Verulam, was an English philosopher and statesman who served as Attorney General and Lord Chancellor of England. Bacon led the advancement of both ...

as a member.

Correspondence with Ian Fleming

On 8 April 2010

Swann Galleries Swann Galleries is a New York City auction house founded in 1941. It is a specialist auctioneer of antique and rare works on paper, and it is considered the oldest continually operating New York specialist auction house. The company has separat ...

auctioned an archive of letters between Chopping, Ian Fleming, and others involved in the production of nine of the 007 covers between 1957 and 1966. The letters touch on details about the jacket art, praise for Chopping's work, payment information, copyright issues and other related topics. The lot sold for $57,600.

References

External links

Obituary: ''Independent''

Obituary: ''Times''
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Chopping, Richard 1917 births 2008 deaths People from Colchester People from Wivenhoe English illustrators People educated at Gresham's School English LGBT writers British LGBT artists 20th-century novelists Writers who illustrated their own writing Trompe-l'œil artists 20th-century LGBT people