[1] Dury earned a degree in botany in Nottingham, and then enrolled in a PhD programme at the University of Leicester.

While genetically engineering tomato and tobacco plants for disease and drought resistance,[2] he was the first cartoonist to be offered a full-time job at Viz by co-creator Chris Donald in April 1988, when royalties began to make the magazine a profitable business.

Early creations, Donald noted, tended to have names that rhymed such as Tristam Banks and his Jocular Pranks or Albert Gordon the Traffic Warden.

He also noted Dury's fondness of, and impressive ability to draw, cowboy boots.

Dury currently draws such comic series Biffa Bacon, Spoilt Bastard, Postman Plod and Roger Mellie.