Brian Clarke discussed his 'Burnley Sketchbook' works in interview with Hans Ulrich Obrist, published in 2023 in Brian Clarke: Collages, saying:

‘This is my first sketchbook – so this is when I’m fourteen, in 1967. And the first item in my sketchbook is a drawing of my parents and my grandparents, with collaged elements in it.'

Speaking on his influences, Clarke said:

'It’s just the influence of collage in general right from the very beginning. Although I think I must have seen Peter Blake’s work, because that can’t have been done without looking at Peter Blake. I probably saw them in the colour supplements.’