Derrick Fielding

What do you keep by your bedside?
A book, a picture of loved ones, teeth in a glass? For me, my bedside table is dominated by a sketch pad and pencils. It has to be like this because it is just as I am dropping off to sleep that my inspiration arrives like an exploding firework - a flash of a scene that will disappear forever unless I stay awake and sketch it instantly.

Born in Liverpool in 1965, I remember spending much of my childhood with my head buried in a comic usually The Beano. I would often relish being sent to bed early as a punishment for some misdemeanour so I could read the latest escapade of The Bash Street Kids. From an early age I loved to draw and as I grew older, I began to use this passion to unleash my elaborate imagination to create games for me and my neighbourhood friends. Fortunately, my father was a painter and decorator so my earliest canvases were the backs of rolls of wallpaper that were supposedly for his customers.

Living on the edge of the city, I was fascinated by the surrounding countryside and would slowly venture further and further out on my pushbike. I ended up spending most of my teenage years travelling around the country on marathon cycling holidays with friends whenever the chance aro...