VOL. 2 ISSUE 7
NOVEMBER 2026
On the set of Memoir of a Snail. Still by kind permission of ArenaMedia
Paul Halas the Arts and Lifestyle Editor at Ars Notoria showcases artists worthy of note from around the world.
Kerry Drumm has variously been an animator, designer, illustrator, film archivist, production coordinator, screenwriter, playwright and children’s book author… in fact when I first familiarised myself with her body of work I thought, “oh my, there’s another bloody polymath.” She has a long list of credits and awards, and is especially known for her writing about the lives of army families, particularly the wives and children, and creating intimate and compassionate depictions of people when feelings become too overwhelming to bear. To quote her, a big theme of her writing is about, “what are people unable to say, and what happens when they can no longer avoid saying it.”
IMAGES AND WORDS – TALKING WITH KERRY DRUMM
–Interview by Halas and Hall
Paul Halas: Hi Kerry. Although it’s the first time we’ve met, I think we have a very old, if tenuous, connection.
Kerry Drumm: Yes, I know your sister Vivien from way back, when I was an animation student, and did some archiving at Halas and Batchelor Animation, your parents’ company.
Paul: As I understand it you were involved in animation well before you began writing. Maybe we could start off with some background, because there’s an Army background to much of your writing. Do you come from an army family?
Kerry: No, I married into the RAF. My husband was in for 23 years, and we moved around a fair bit because of that. Cyprus, Germany, and various places around the UK. I’m a military wife.
Paul: You’ve written award-winning films and plays about military families. You described how you’re a quiet and observant person, certainly as a kid. Would you say your writing is based on personal experience, and on what you’ve observed of those around you?
Kerry: Absolutely. I think for a lot of writing that’s where you find the strength: in what’s familiar. Because it’s familiar to you, it’s probably familiar to those watching or reading as well. I naturally gravitate towards that style of writing and observing.
I was very quiet as a child, the eldest of three, always the most well-behaved, which meant I had to watch a lot. And then I was badly dyslexic as a kid, although that was undiagnosed in the 1970s, so I’d just draw and make sketchbooks and listen to what was going on around me. It’s still the same, although I’m 56; I still draw and listen. It’s just natural for me to be like that.
Illustration by Kerry Drumm
Paul: I’m fascinated by that, because I’m mildly dyslexic, and have three sons who are also dyslexic to a degree. It can affect your life choices. I’m interested in how you made the journey from doing something very visual, physical almost, to verbal. From visual storytelling to storytelling with words.
Phil Hall: Can I backtrack, just for a minute, and go back to the beginning, to the work you did before you got to the writing. You call them doodles. They look like the best kind of children’s book illustrations. I can imagine then being used for Orlando the Cat, or The General who refused to Fight, those kinds of beautiful picture books. I just wonder if children’s illustrations and books are important to you in some way.
Illustration by Kerry Drumm
Kerry: I think so. I used to take part in the Glenda Jackson Youth Theatre, and was always very interested in production design. Then I married into the military, moved around, and was always doing character portraits for people that I worked with. We were posted from Germany to Hampshire, and an officer’s wife told me there was a big art college there.
My art teacher at school had told me to go to art college, but no, I wanted to go onto a YTS (Youth Training Scheme). It was the 80s, and this child was going to get £25 per week because I’d had enough of education.
MORE ARTS & VISUAL CULTURE IN THE NOVEMBER ISSUE
Images and Words — Talking with Kerry Drumm
Halas & Hall have an in-depth conversation with the artist and playwright Kerry Drumm, who has won prestigious awards for her work.
Beaux-Arts in the 21st Century
Ulises Paniagua Olivares reassesses the classical division of Beaux-Arts and asks for a broad discussion on a possible new classification for the Arts in an age of AI.
Atomic Tangerine Razzle Dazzle Rose, Screamin’ Green, Bittersweet Shimmer
Martina Winter. An essay about the evolving use of colour in art and politics.
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