While cartoonists abroad are jailed for mocking authority, Peter Brookes of The Times has been appointed CBE after a career spent savagely depicting the hypocrisy, cruelty and vanity of the powerful.

Peter Brookes CBE DAVID BEBBER FOR THE TIMES

The former RAF pilot, 73, said that he hesitated before deciding to accept the honour to illustrate the importance of free speech.

“I am glad to live in a country that recognises cartoonists in this particular way,” he said. “There will be those who wonder whether Theresa May and others can justifiably say ‘we have got him now’. My feeling is very much that they haven’t. I am not going to stop hitting hard.”

Peter Brookes and the art of satire

Brookes left the air force to study at art school and became an illustrator for current affairs periodicals.

He worked