Maudie Littlehampton

[1][2] At some unspecified date in the inter-war years Maudie married her distant cousin, William Courantsdair, Viscount Draynefleet, the eldest son and heir of the 7th Earl of Littlehampton, who succeeded his father in the earldom in 1937.

[1] Lancaster had been contributing pocket cartoons to The Daily Express since 1939, but it was not until after the war that he developed a repertory company of characters in whose mouths he put his social and political jokes.

[6] Her comments on the fads and peculiarities of the day caught the public imagination;[6] the art historian Bevis Hillier called her "an iconic figure to rank with Low's Colonel Blimp and Giles's Grandma".

[11] Around Maudie, the supporting cast included Willy, usually confused but occasionally shrewd; two formidable dowagers: the Littlehamptons' Great-Aunt Edna, and Mrs Frogmarch, a middle-class Tory activist; Canon Fontwater, a personification of the Church Militant; Mrs Rajagojollibarmi, an Asian politician; Father O'Bubblegum, Fontwater's Roman Catholic opposite number; and the Littlehamptons’ children, Jennifer, Torquil and Patricia.

[13] In 2008 Peter York called Maudie "a brilliantly realised comic impersonation": Lady Littlehampton, married into a fictitious earldom with Norman origins, spoke for her class and generation, but at the same time allowed the Express's lower-middle-class readers to identify with her, to see her as a friend.

[14]Another cartoonist, Martin Rowson, has said that in Maudie it is possible to see her creator's views and intentions: "The great thing about Osbert is that although he appealed to the establishment, he was in fact deeply subversive.