Happy Birthday, Ronald Searle!
March 3, 2010 3:13 AM Subscribe
The cartoonist Ronald Searle turns 90 today (March 3)! Hurrah for St. Trinians!.
The Cartoon Museum in London opens Searle's first-ever show in Britain. In this interview, Searle , at 90, recalls the bad girls of St Trinian's and his time as a prisoner-of-war and the abrupt leaving of his wife and children. Fleeing to France in 1961, he never returned. His archive was donated to the Willhelm Busch museum in Germany which is also holding a Searle exhibition.
The Cartoon Museum in London opens Searle's first-ever show in Britain. In this interview, Searle , at 90, recalls the bad girls of St Trinian's and his time as a prisoner-of-war and the abrupt leaving of his wife and children. Fleeing to France in 1961, he never returned. His archive was donated to the Willhelm Busch museum in Germany which is also holding a Searle exhibition.
St. Trinians was one of the best things EVER! Alastair Sim, George Cole, Joyce Grenfell, Sid James, Beryl Reid – still my beating heart. Vail British Lion.
posted by tellurian at 4:02 AM on March 3, 2010
posted by tellurian at 4:02 AM on March 3, 2010
Many happy returns to the co-creator of nigel molesworth and inventor of the Flying Catburger!
posted by Doktor Zed at 4:15 AM on March 3, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by Doktor Zed at 4:15 AM on March 3, 2010 [1 favorite]
ronald serle also illustrated the books ritten by MOLESWORTH about st custards skool in which you lern about Latin Sentences and a weed called Shelley.
posted by Electric Dragon at 4:16 AM on March 3, 2010
posted by Electric Dragon at 4:16 AM on March 3, 2010
Not all Billecart-Salmon. Searle in "Le Monde". Happy Birthday old chap.
posted by adamvasco at 4:55 AM on March 3, 2010
posted by adamvasco at 4:55 AM on March 3, 2010
mettafilter is ful of new bugs but mattowie will sort them out and they wil go AROO and UG and flame out. There will be No Mor @ or deerailment chiz.
posted by alasdair at 5:46 AM on March 3, 2010
posted by alasdair at 5:46 AM on March 3, 2010
Q. Are the Andes?
A. I ask you! Are the Andes? wot a question. Wot does it mean clot? Do you mean WERE the Andes? Of course they were. They didn't pop up overnite you kno. Nor will they pop off agane but i wish you would.
Q. In Africa?
A. i am waiting. the lunatick bin is second turning on the right. they will be waiting for you. In africa indeed! n.b. if the words "in Africa" belong to "Are the Andes" i neither kno nor care.
posted by unSane at 5:46 AM on March 3, 2010 [1 favorite]
A. I ask you! Are the Andes? wot a question. Wot does it mean clot? Do you mean WERE the Andes? Of course they were. They didn't pop up overnite you kno. Nor will they pop off agane but i wish you would.
Q. In Africa?
A. i am waiting. the lunatick bin is second turning on the right. they will be waiting for you. In africa indeed! n.b. if the words "in Africa" belong to "Are the Andes" i neither kno nor care.
posted by unSane at 5:46 AM on March 3, 2010 [1 favorite]
How To Be Topp was a major influence on my attitude to skool :-)
Previous Molesworth on MeFi.
posted by i_cola at 5:55 AM on March 3, 2010
Previous Molesworth on MeFi.
posted by i_cola at 5:55 AM on March 3, 2010
I'm collecting the first editions of the Molesworth books, but unfortunately the only signed ones I have are signed by Willans, not Searle. Chiz
posted by hardcode at 6:03 AM on March 3, 2010
posted by hardcode at 6:03 AM on March 3, 2010
Finally I decided to pack up and go when the children were 14. I don’t regret one second of it. A brutal decision, as I said to Sue Lawley (“Yes, totally egotistical,” he said on Desert Island Discs in 2005). But at 14 I was practically working myself. At 14, you are big enough to make your own life.” (A statement his twins, now 62, would dispute.) His relationship with his children remains, at best, distant and sporadic. Kaye never got over his leaving and for the rest of her life talked about him as if he had gone yesterday. The truth is, he was never a family man.
I don't care how good of an artist he is, he's a selfish creep who abandoned his children. Ugh.
posted by Scoo at 6:18 AM on March 3, 2010 [1 favorite]
I don't care how good of an artist he is, he's a selfish creep who abandoned his children. Ugh.
posted by Scoo at 6:18 AM on March 3, 2010 [1 favorite]
Scoo, perhaps if you take a look at what he endured, the judgement could perhaps be that he was - human.
posted by vacapinta at 6:27 AM on March 3, 2010
posted by vacapinta at 6:27 AM on March 3, 2010
Oh, I know he endured the horrors of the sadistic-by-design Japanese POW camps, and I certainly sympathize. I don't see how that excuses him for abandoning his family. I'm not calling for his head or anything, I simply have no respect for any man who does that.
posted by Scoo at 6:56 AM on March 3, 2010
posted by Scoo at 6:56 AM on March 3, 2010
My favorite Ronald Searle book is Dick Deadeye, which is his version of Gilbert and Sullivan's HMS Pinafore.
posted by ocherdraco at 7:14 AM on March 3, 2010
posted by ocherdraco at 7:14 AM on March 3, 2010
Thanks. I had no idea who Searle was, but when I looked at the links I immediately recognized his work.
posted by gamera at 4:00 PM on March 3, 2010
posted by gamera at 4:00 PM on March 3, 2010
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