Mike Jeffries

Born in Plymouth, Devon on 26th April 1939 professional artist since 1980 after a career in transport startng in 1956 as a steam locomotive fireman.

I was born in Plymouth, Devon just before WW2 but as far as I know it wasnt me who upset Hitler who nevertheless did his upmost to kill me and my family over the next five years. However we were lucky, for when he bombed Plymouth flat in 1940 my Mum and I were untouched and were evacuated to live out the War on a farm in Cornwall and my Dad, a sailor in the Royal Navy, on active service on the North Atlantic, Mediterranean and Russian convoys thoughout the War never got his feet wet but my poor Uncle Jack,who I never knew, went down with the aircraft carrier HMS Courageous in the first week of the War.

All this you might think has little to do with Art but one of my first memories is of the sleepy lanes around the farm becoming suddenly alive with Army lorries of every shape and size in the build-up to D-Day. All at once I was hooked on lorries, perhaps the air of excitement and the generosity of the American GIs who supplied us urchins with sweets helped, but from that day on I started to draw these wonderful,[ to my eyes,] machines on any scrap of paper I could find.Read more