Andrew on The Jonathan Ross Show - February 2014

Andrew spoke to Jonathan Ross on the Jonathan Ross Show in February 2014 about his stroke and the importance of drawing and painting which helps him appreciate being alive and really notice things that he would otherwise miss or not appreciate as much.

Also on the show is Umu Thurman and Andrew recounts how inspired he was by the scene in Kill Bill when Uma Thurman's character was recovering after being left for dead and is trying desperately to move her body.

Andrew wrote 'A short book about drawing' during the winter of 2012.  He suffered his stroke a few weeks after he finished it as a result of over exercising on a rowing machine.  When he started to recover in hospital, one of his early frustrations was wanting to draw but being unable to because he only had the use of one hand. His left hand was, sadly, useless and he had to accept that his drawing was terrible. 

Whilst in hospital a very bright and determines "Art Therapist" told Andrew that many recovering stroke survivors found art essential to them, producing drawings and paintings of a high quality they had never thought they could make before they became ill.

In his book Andrew states 'I certainly didn't feel that I was myself properly until I found myself drawing again, as it happens, on my iPad, which is simply easier than with a large piece of paper and a tin of pencils.'

Peppered throughout the book are a diverse drawings range of drawings, some scribbled in notebooks on assignment in countries as far afield as Turkey, China, India, South Africa, Palestine, Argentina, Russia, Egypt and the USA, whilst others are carefully observed and rendered on Marr's iPad from his hospital bed. 

In 'A short book about drawing' Andrew argues for the value and importance of  the complex pleasures of putting pencil to paper and to demonstrate this includes his sketches of people and places including Ronnie Wood, a beautiful tree in Devon, a mosque in Mali and the impressive bronze at the Royal Academy from Andrew's notebook which Jonathan holds during the interview above.