WOLLASTON artist Geoff Tristram is set to publish his autobiography – lifting the lid on his 40-year career as a professional painter, cartoonist and illustrator.

Geoff, of Eggington Road, who has worked for the likes of Penguin Books, Royal Doulton, the BBC, Trivial Pursuit and Ravensburger Jigsaw Puzzles, will be telling humorous anecdotes about his event-filled life in his soon to be released book A Lifetime Watching Paint Dry.

Stourbridge News:

The book will be launched at an event at Wollaston Tennis Club on Friday October 12 at 7.30pm and he's warned readers they should be concerned if they are featured in it and "quietly miffed" if they're not.

Geoff, aged 64, who also writes comedy novels, said: "It's a laugh-out loud, indiscreet autobiography with lots of lovely old photographs.

"A lot of my comedy fiction books are based on stupid things that have happened to me in real life. I thought it wouldn't it be nice to write an autobiography when it's all true - I've been a chaos magnet all my life."

The book covers Geoff's life from childhood - growing up in Quarry Bank with his brother David (playwright and creator of the Doreen comedy character), through his days as an art student in the 1970s up to the present day.

A host of famous names feature in the book as over the years Geoff has painted all manner of celebrities including the likes of Jeremy Clarkson, Jonathan Ross, Ian Botham, Gary Lineker and virtually every top snooker player when he was given his own mini chat show during the 2008 Embassy World Snooker Championships.

He has also designed album covers for UB40 and was the artist behind the famous Cat Conundrum pictures which appear on Ravensburger's jigsaw puzzles. He also designed postage stamps for Prince Charles and Diana's wedding - and even put the face on Henry the vacuum cleaner.

As if that's not enough, in 2016 Geoff unveiled what he dubbed possibly his greatest ever piece of work - an official portrait of William Shakespeare painted to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the Bard's death.

Priced £8.99 - the book will be available from Geoff's website www.geofftristram.co.uk or anyone wanting a copy can email him at gt@geofftristram.co.uk.