About this web site

Where else could you possibly enter a site dedicated to Bristow than at.....

The Staff Entrance   

For here is where we enter the headquarters of the massive Chester-Perry Organisation, founded by Sir Reginald Chester-Perry himself. And here one man shows a spirit of defiance, individuality and humour that typifies the human condition in the face of oppression and tyranny. Well, up to the point that the wages come round anyway.  

This is the story of that man.

Bristow is drawn by Frank Dickens. He has produced more than 12,000 strips since 1961, the majority published in the London Evening Standard between 1962 and 2001. Visit his website for a new Bristow strip each day.

Every page within the Staff Entrance is linked to below and also in the drop-down menu that appears on each page. These pages are part of Guter.org

New for 2009 - pictures now "float" rather than opening up in a new window and you can open as many strips as there are links to them (on one page at a time). Use the mouse to click the strip numbers, or the arrow keys, to pop up the pictures and drag with the mouse to arrange them on the screen if you want to compare them.With thanks to Torstein Hønsi of Highslide.com for making this code freely available
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There are more hyperlinks - following the example of Wikipedia, the first time on a page that there is a mention of a character or theme that has its own page, there will be a hyperlink to that page

New articles on Miss Rouge, Muscles Maddox (the firm's bully), Mr Meeke (the firm's scapegoat), the Sick Bay, Mr Tracer (the firm's amateur sleuth) and the Dreaded Hulines, as well as many extra pictures and textual revisions.

Bristow -  the man

The Soul of a Buying Clerk
The Job 
Bristow vs.The System

Bristow's ambitions

Bristow's romances
Getting to Work     Sleep    Tea    Origins



What can we say about the man himself, the buying clerk's buying clerk, the devoted employee who after eight and two thirds years of loyal service is still 18th in line for Chief Buyer. In this section we try to get to the heart and soul of Mr. R. Bristow

 


Life in the dreaded Chester-Perry Building

The colossal business empire founded by Sir Reginald, the Chester-Perry empire embraces many diverse businesses.  The Head office is a huge, monolithic brick building, parts of which are still being explored, bricked up, flooded by tea trolleys or used for many nefarious purposes. Sometimes people work there as well.
Inside the offices     How Big is C-Ps?     The Buying Department   The Firm's Canteen   Where is C-Ps located?    The Typing Pool   The House Journal   The Sick Bay
Other departments  The firm's colours  Sir Reginald' s standard     Sexism in C-Ps     The Great Tea Trolley Disaster of '67     The Great Luncheon Voucher Swindle    The Great Desktop Football Disaster    The Northern branch Two men in the corridor

Meet some of Bristow's colleagues

A mixed bag of crawlers and skivers, drunkards and layabouts, oily little gits and aggressive intolerant pen-pushers. Ah, the joy of office life.

Jones     Dimkins      Hewitt
 Pilkington      Atkins of Accounts 
Sampson of Sales     Hickford     
Toady Thompson the firm's crawler  
Peterson of Public Relations
Mr. Gordon Blue
Casanova Cooper of Costing
Mr. Cole the firm's barrack-room lawyer
Mr. Tracer the firm's sleuth
The New Man in the Accounts

Benny (the Duke) Gibson 

Mr. Shuffler     Mr. Gabby
Muscles Maddox the firm's bully
Mr. Meeke the firm's scapegoat
Alf Tupper      The Pigeon

 

 


There's more to life than Chester-Perrys - but is it life as we know it?

It's always busy around the Chester-Perry Building. If its not Messrs N Walters & Son trying out another desperate business venture, it's the Blondini Brothers ("Scaffolding to the Gentry") putting up another floor to the long awaited Myles & Rudge extension. The Traffic warden dispenses parking tickets whilst the bureaucrats of various "hi-speed" Government bodies plot to ruin everyone's life. Its a wonder that Bristow can get to work at all.

Myles & Rudge     Gun & Fames  
N. Walters & Son
Funboys Tours ("Hols for the Prols")
Blondini Brothers     Bodega Brothers  
The Press      Heap & Trotwood
Miss Pretty of Kleenaphone
British Hi-Speed Rail and others
The Park Keeper   Traffic Warden 232  The Tramps  Elvis Boggis 
Effandee Holdings
 
Greedy Fella Sandwich bar

Joe's Joke Emporium
The Dreaded Hulines

 


Even a humble buying clerk may feel superior to some people - here's a selection

 

 

 




What defines this group as inferior? - easy, these are the people who aspire to becoming buying clerks.

Bristow cultivates and seems to be on good terms with the underclass at C-Ps - the tea ladies, the liftboy, the post boy, the janitors, the switchboard operators and most significantly the factory workers. Do they regard him as one of their own, or do they see him as inferior, someone to be pitied rather than respected? Things are different with the sharp-tongued girls of the typing pool, who will call him "creep" behind his back. But that may because he wastes so much of their time with his writings, singing into the Dictaphone and practical jokes (from Joe’s Joke Emporium).
Miss Sunman 
Mrs. Purdy the tea lady
   The Post-Boy   The Lift-Boy    Miss Rouge  
Temps
 
Mary on the switchboard    Cleaners  School-leavers 
The workers in the factory 
Charlie of the machine shop
Mrs. Chrisp
      The Chauffeur 
The Commissionaire

 

 


The Bosses    - a tribute

 

Why does Bristow stick it at Chester-Perry's? He is 18th in line for Chief Buyer, remember. One day he might actually become Chief Buyer. If he does then he will join the hallowed ranks of Management at whom he has spent so much time thumbing his nose (often literally). Here you will find a few of the people he hopes to rub shoulders with eventually..
Sir Reginald    Fudge  Barker 
The Lady Chief Buyer
  Miss Glockling
Directors of the C-P organisation
Softy Palmer
       Mr. Flint
WJ Turner (the firm's hatchet man)  
Mr. Wilkington Mr. Taylor   

 

 


What does a buying clerk do when he is not at work?

 

There is more to life than slaving away at a desk for eight hours a day. The firm provides wholesome and uplifting activities through the ever popular Sports and Social Club. The clerks while away many an idle hour with a relaxing game of desk-top football. Once a year Bristow fires up the old motor car and tootles off for two blissful weeks of sea, sand and sunburn. But the ultimate escape is to make it as a best selling writer and Bristow misses no chance to add to his impressive list of works.
The Sports & Social Club

Holidays 
The Collected Works of Bristow 
The Poetic Urge
Desk-top Football
    Paper Aeroplanes Brain Surgery for Beginners 
A song or two   The Glee Club
The Works brass band

 


Bristow on the Radio

In 1999 and 2000 the BBC broadcast 14 half hour programmes, starring Michael Williams as Bristow, Rodney Bewes as Jones and Dora Bryan as Mrs. Purdy.

Transmission details and script transcripts are here, and only here, on Guter.org.

 

Bristow in Print  

A number of collections of the cartoon strips have appeared in book form. 

Scans of the covers are here

Bristow in colour
After nearly 40 years in black and white, he finally appeared in full (okay, partial) colour - strip 10589
Strip 10589 was published in the Evening Standard in November 1999

Bristow 1962 - April 2001 is copyright ©Associated Newspapers Limited, who have kindly given their permission for the reproduction of the images in this website.
Since April 2001 Bristow is copyright ©Frank Dickens.

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