"The Penguin Ronald Searle" By Ronald Searle (published by Penguin Books Ltd, London 1960) - Part 5

Just three more from Ronald Searle (1920-2011). These are under the heading "Signing Off"....

"The Penguin Ronald Searle" By Ronald Searle (published by Penguin Books Ltd, London 1960) - Part 4

The inimitable Ronald Searle (1920-2011) - every mark on each illustration is vibrant, exciting and utterly brilliant! Looking at the expressions on the faces, the shapes of the bodies and the sharp irony of the various situations makes me laugh every time. I've scanned the artist's biography from the back cover of the book (previous post) but here's also an extensive entry from wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Searle The pictures in this book are arranged in themes - pets and their owners, from the first post, sale slogans, dancers, artists, musicians and some surreal ones like the last two below...

"The Penguin Ronald Searle" By Ronald Searle (published by Penguin Books Ltd, London 1960) - Part 3

"The Penguin Ronald Searle" By Ronald Searle (published by Penguin Books Ltd, London 1960) - Part 2

"The Penguin Ronald Searle" By Ronald Searle (published by Penguin Books Ltd, London 1960)

"Ronald Searle's Non-Sexist Dictionary" By Ronald Searle (Published by Souvenir Press Ltd, London 1988) Part 3

 

This book seems to quite popular with the readers of this blog so I thought of adding some more pictures from it! The truth is that I've been so busy this month I've had no time to scan any new books!

 

 

 

"Ronald Searle's Non-Sexist Dictionary" By Ronald Searle (Published by Souvenir Press Ltd, London 1988) Part 2

 

 

Zany illustrations from this 1988 book by Ronald Searle (1920-2011). A good biography on the artist here: http://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/jan/03/ronald-searle The best source of information on the artist is actually the Ronald Searle Tribute blog with many extended articles on his life and work: http://ronaldsearle.blogspot.co.uk/

 

 

"Ronald Searle's Non-Sexist Dictionary" By Ronald Searle (Published by Souvenir Press Ltd, London 1988) Part 1

 

 

 

"Down With Skool" by Geoffrey Wilans and Ronald Searle, Part 3, (Published by Max Parrish, London 1953)

 

 

To this day, it's hard to find any illustrator that hasn't been influenced by Searle's extra-ordinary work. This book is full of these characters (120 drawings in all!), each one so unique and real - you can't help thinking that you've met people like them or seen some in a movie. His deceptively loose and simple line is so descriptive of the character's appearance and soul yet distorting and exaggerating their shape for comical effect.

 

There's a very good review of this book to be found on Matt Jones' Ronald Searle tribute blog http://ronaldsearle.blogspot.co.uk/2006/07/molesworth.html together with many more illustrations.

 

 

"Down With Skool" by Geoffrey Willans and Ronald Searle, Part 2, (Published by Max Parrish, London 1953)

 

 

 

"Down With Skool" By Goeffrey Willans and Ronald Searle (published by Max Parrish, London 1953)

 

 

Picked this Ronald Searle 1953 classic a couple of weeks ago from a bookshop in Edinburgh (Till's brilliant second-hand bookshop is full of treasures like this, comics, old film posters and much more... here's their website http://www.tillsbookshop.co.uk/index.aspx if anybody wants to check them out). 

The main character, Nigel Molesworth, had already been created by Geoffrey Willans for Punch magazine before Searle was approached to produce the characters for the story. Following its huge success (which, incidentally, surpassed the sales of "The Terror Of St. Trinian's"(1952) that Searle is more famous for) there were two more books published in the same series before the author's death in 1958. More details on wikipedia here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigel_Molesworth

 

"It must be true - it was all in the papers" - A tribute to Ronald Searle

This 1952 book was featured on this blog two years ago (http://picturesfromanoldbook.blogspot.com/2010/03/it-must-be-true-it-was-all-in-papers.html ). I thought I'd post some of these images again in tribute to the great artist who passed the way a couple of days ago in France at the age of 91. For more information on his life and great career, here are the obituaries in yesterday's Independent http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/ronald-searle-illustrator-and-cartoonist-who-created-the-anarchic-world-of-st-trinians-6284479.html and the Daily Telegraph: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/culture-obituaries/art-obituaries/8989894/Ronald-Searle.html