Stourbridge artist Geoff pieces the puzzles together

In his own words, the Stourbridge artist has 'done it all' – including painting a 400th 'serious' anniversary portrait of William Shakespeare for celebrations in Stratford.

During his life he has drawn and painted for Tarmac, Cadbury's, Thornton's, Past Times, Winsor and Newton, Reeves Paints, Paper Rose Greetings Cards, and the BBC - to name a few.

But the 63-year-old is far from taking an early retirement and has been busy showing off his recent work - a new set of cartoon jigsaw puzzles for worldwide company Ravensburger.

Mr Tristram, who lives in Wollaston with wife Susan, said: "I've done all sorts. I've done cartoons for Penguin books, UB40's first couple of record sleeves, postage stamps in the 1980s - for Charles and Diana's wedding - even a cover of Trivial Pursuit.

"I was the Embassy World Snooker Championship cartoonist and caricature for 20 years too.

"But at the moment I do these jigsaws for Ravensburger, there are two types. One is a two word title, where they just say 'the supermarket' or something and I have to come up with a puzzle. That's all they give me - and I have to come up with all the jokes for it too.

"The other is 'what if'. So the picture on the lid isn't the same as the puzzle in the box. For example, there's a picture of Leonardo De Vinci on the front but it's called 'what if Leonardo De Vinci didn't paint the Mona Lisa?' and the picture inside is the consequence of that."

Mr Tristram's artwork has also been seen on fine art prints, collector's plates, magazines, greetings cards, press advertisements, billboards and packaging, and he also accepts private commissions, especially enjoying portraiture.

As if he wasn't busy enough - he is also a novelist and currently has 11 comedies in the shops and on websites such as Amazon.

The father-of-two, who has been a cartoonist for 42 years, has created many pieces of artwork for Ravensburger jigsaws, and will even be featuring a competition-winning family at some point in the future – although he cannot reveal too many details yet.

When he is not at the drawing board or the computer keyboard, Mr Tristram admitted he spends a lot of his time giving humorous talks about his 'frenetic' career to different groups and societies, or visiting schools and colleges to hopefully inspire the students.

In the past he said he was a 'promising classical clarinettist' but these days more enjoys playing the electric guitar. He also watches a lot of village cricket which he claims is 'just about the only thing that calms down an over-active mind'.

His one dream is that one day someone will adapt one of his comedy novels into a film.

Mr Tristram will now be venturing off to the Lake District for some well-deserved down time, before getting stuck into the next project.