"It must be true - it was all in the papers" - Denys Parsons, illustrated by Ronald Searle (published by Macdonald & Co, London 1952) - part one

This has to be the most precious item in my collection yet! Early work by Ronald Searle, so striking and fresh after so many decades! There are a number of pen and ink drawings in the book illustrating a collection of bizarre stories taken from newspaper announcements or reports. Brilliant and hilarious characters throughout! It's so inspiring studying Searle's masterful line work and his inventiveness for faces and expressions.

I've been meaning to put this up on the blog for ages and I'm so pleased it coincides with the artist's 90th birthday and the start of a retrospective exhibition of his work at the Cartoon Museum in London (3 March - 4 July 2010). There is a report on the opening night of the exhibition, photos and other material on Matt Jones' excellent blog http://ronaldsearle.blogspot.com/ which is dedicated exclusively to Searle's work. There's so much of the artist's work presented on this blog together with well documented information that it would take days to go through! There is also Brian Sibley's blog with an extended article on Searle and the exhibition http://briansibleysblog.blogspot.com/2010/02/searley-days.html