Ronald Searle was an influential English artist and cartoonist, renowned for creating the St Trinian's School series and co-authoring the Molesworth books. His work, deeply shaped by his experiences as a prisoner of war, is characterized by sharp observation and satirical wit. Searle masterfully captured both the absurdities of school life and the profound realities of human suffering. His distinctive style and keen eye for detail made him a significant voice in 20th-century illustration.
World renowned cartoonist Ronald Searle has satirically but lovingly portrayed his feline friends in outlandish almost human entanglements. A remarkably hairy cat facing a dandruff problem, a vanity-stricken balding cat wearing an unsuitable wig, and a cat of a thousand disguises concealing itself as a rug are just some of the witty full-color illustrations that everyone, but cat lovers in particular, will find irresistible."
Illustrated in Searle's inimitable style are the ancient noble ceremony of slashing the trockenbeerenauslese, the inauguration of the first authentic denominazione di origine controllata e garantita, and the vinolympics. For wine lovers who have never tasted ptolemy nouveau or watched the uncorking of the kangarouge, these experiences are related with warmth and humor. The many ways to open a bottle of wine are illustrated, and the rituals and delights of wine around the world are described.
47 jewel-like drawings by Ronald Searle made for his wife, Monica, each time she underwent chemotherapy. On New Year's Eve 1969, Monica Searle was diagnosed with a rare and virulent form of breast cancer. Each time she underwent treatment, Ronald produced a Mrs Mole drawing 'to cheer every dreaded chemotherapy session and evoke the blissful future ahead'. Filled with light and illuminated in glowing colours, the drawings speak of love, optimism and hope. Like the mediaeval illuminated manuscripts such as the 15th-century Les Tres Riches Heures du Duc de Berry, to which the title of this book refers, the 47 drawings are on an intimate scale and were never intended for publication. The story of Monica's survival against the odds and the part played by the encouragement of her husband will move many people who have either experienced cancer for themselves or been affected through a close family member or friend.
Teachers and small children beware! Welcome to St Trinian's - the young ladies' academy where arson, stabbings and witchcraft are among the maidenly arts offered on the curriculum, where gunpowder is available from the tuck shop and where smaller girls are tortured on the rack by prefects at playtime. Chaos reigns and vultures circle overhead as this fiendish band of schoolgirls hold black masses in the cellar, torment souls during violin practice and conduct scientific experiments with bat's blood in the lab, while sadistic school mistresses teach unarmed combat in the gym and oversee murderous mayhem on the hockey field. Vividly imagined in Ronald Searle's exuberant, energetic cartoons, St Trinian's is a hilarious, Gothic satire on the English boarding school that has inspired naughty schoolgirls for generations.
Takes us to the world of the Gothic Public School. This book features shootings, knifings, torture and witchcraft, as well as many maidenly arts. It also contains a selection of the author's work from the non-school books, including The Rake's Progress, Souls in Torment and Merry England, and others.
In 1941 Ronald Searle was made a prisoner of war by the Japanese, after 14 months in a POW camp he was sent to work on the Burma Railway until May 1944 when he was sent to the notorious Changi prison. Throughout his captivity Searle drew to record his experiences, hiding the drawings, and they have been become to be recognised as among the greatest, and most moving, record of WW2. Searle has described the book as "the grafitti of a condemned man... who found himself--to his surprise and delight -- among the reprieved."
A hilarious send-up of winetasters' jargon, this collection of cartoons offers a satiric look at pretentious phrases used to describe wines by humorously assigning those characteristics to people.
Ronald Searle's wicked world of book collecting: The unvarnished truth is here exposed at last, both in the shockingly explicit drawings and in the devastatingly frank glossary whose revelations will startle even the most battle-scarred bibliophile.
