Ronald Searle

Ronald Searle, who died aged 91, was best known in Britain for his cheerfully anarchic St Trinian’s series of books and Molesworth illustrations created with just pen and ink in the 1940’s. His black humour in the illustrations he created were considered ground-breaking in 1950s Britain.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts

Born in Cambridge in 1920 he joined the Army when World War II started. At the age of 22, he was captured in Singapore by the Japanese. He spent the rest of the war in appalling conditions as a labourer and in prison.

He later said that what he witnessed as a prisoner of war marked him for life. “I was in conditions of total isolation, total brutality – it was slavery. I woke up day after day with men dead on each side of me.” 

http://www.scotiana.com/st-trinians-ronald-searles-famous-cartoon-set-in-edinburgh/

“What kept me going was that, if I could only show people what it had been like, I would have achieved something in the short life I was likely to have.”

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts

But he did make it through the war, and returned to Britain to begin a slow return to physical health. Soon, he was supplying cartoons to magazines of the day such as The Strand and Punch.

From 1953, the Molesworth books, written with the journalist Geoffrey Willans, went over some of the same ground as St Trinian’s – but also had a charm of their own.

What I enjoy about these illustrations are all the hidden extras that make me laugh, his sense of humour, from the surprised expression to breasts on cats, to architectural detail is spot on. Even if the characters are hideous it is all the extra details that make you look closer. This style is certainly recognisable.