Painter and illustrator, born in Manchester into a large working-class family. Was an apprenticed lithographer with George Faulkner, studying painting and drawing at Manchester School of Art. Worked as a commercial artist, which sapped his strength for other painting, while keeping abreast of European trends in art, being a keen disciple of Picasso. In 1951 Brooks created the mural Public Health for a floating exhibition on HMS Campania, part of the Festival of Britain; and in that year his lino-cut Men of Tolpuddle sold to raise funds for the Daily Worker newpaper. His lifelong companion, the painter Barbara Niven, also a Communist Party member who died in 1971, ran the Worker’s Fighting Fund for over 20 years. In the 1930s they had helped found the Manchester Theatre Union, in which the director Joan Littlewood and folk singer Ewan McColl were involved.