Ronald Searle - part 4

The son of a railwayman, Ronald Searle was born in Cambridge on 3 March 1920, and educated in the town at the Boys' Central School. He started work as a solicitor's clerk, and then joined the hire purchase department of the co-operative Society, studying in the evenings and later full-time at the Cambridge Daily News from the age of fifteen.

Enlisting in the Royal Engineers at the outbreak of the Second World War, he spent time in Kirkcudbright, where he encountered evacuees from St. Trinian's, a progressive girls' school situated in Edinburgh. This resulted in his first cartoon for Lilliput, published in October 1941, and later developed into one of his most famous creations, through a series of books and their cinematic spin-offs. Remarkably, he survived the horrific experiences of the Changi Camp, Singapore as a Japanese prisoner-of-war and managed to produce a visual record of life in a prison camp.

On his return to England in 1945, he exhibited the surviving pictures at the Cambridge School of Art, and published Forty Drawings. The exhibition and volume together established his reputation as one of Britain's most powerful draughtsmen, and led to several opportunities to record the atmosphere of post-war Europe. He contributed to Punch and these drawings crystallised in, The Female Approach (1949). Throughout the fifties, he produced a large variety of illustrations, which together seemed present a guide to life in Britain in the 1950's.

Such was his success that his rejection of family and country in a move to Paris in 1961 came as a great surprise. However, it offered a fresh start, resulting in several solo shows, including a major exhibitions at the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, the Berlin-Dahlem Museum and the Wilhelm-Busch-Museum, Hanover. He also reached a new audience with his contributions to film and television, most notably The Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines (1965).

Note: Searle did so many works that I want to post here, that I will post them in two separate series: 1940-1960, and at a later date: 1961-2007.

For a more detailed biography see part 1, and for earlier works, see parts 1 - 3 also. 

This is part 4 of a 13-part series on the works of Ronald Searle, dated 1940-1960:

1950-54 The Female Approach: The Belles of St. Trinian's and Other Cartoons:

Front Cover

Back Cover

Title Page
"First, let me see your handwriting."

"Show me that pretty necklace, child."

"For you - and Mother, Miss Spence."

"All I need is sympathy."

"Yes. a tiger got poor little Maud outside Karachi."

"Me first left quite a bit, y'know."

"You with your stained glass, I with my Poetry."

"This? Sparklin' lemonade, me dear."

Dear Diary...

"You've trapped me in music's lair, Miss Filby."

Morbid Anatomies
(also published separately as Layman's Guide to Anatomy)

Morbid Anatomies

Morbid Anatomies

Morbid Anatomies

Morbid Anatomies

Layman's Guide to the Ballet Dancer's Anatomy

Layman's Guide to the Printer's Anatomy
original artwork

Layman's Guide to the Printer's Anatomy

Morbid Anatomy of an Amateur Golfer

Morbid Anatomy of the Boy Scout

Morbid Anatomy of the San Francisco Society Lady

Morbid Anatomy of the Southern Belle

How to Get a Raise in eight efforts...

"You see, it's necessary for me to go to an exclusive tailor for the good of the firm, sir."

"To tell you the truth, I've always felt a damfool in this
get-up."

"… and this, children, is where they work for peace."

"It is not my intention to work you up into a state of mass hysteria…"

1950-58 Paris Sketchbook by Ronald Searle and Kaye Webb published by Perpetua Books:

Front Cover

1951 An Evening at the Larches by Harry Hearson and J.C. Trewin :

Front Cover original artwork