Searle's Dogs

Ronald Searle was, of course, famous for his cat drawings but he told me he was never particularly fond of cats they were merely "what sold".  His various depictions of dogs over the years are just as funny and he produced a whole book on the canine personality "With four lugubrious verses" written by 'Molesworth' creator Geoffrey Willans in 1958.

Searle lived in Paris for the best part of the sixties. A city of dog lovers, it commissioned Searle in the eighties to illustrate a campaign to keep its sidewalks clean!

'Particularly revolting dog glowing under the impression that it is man's best friend'

Searle's covers for the New Yorker usually featured his famously laconic felines but this one, published Sept 19, 1970, depicts a site often observed in the richer parts of large cities.

Early examples from the 1950s published in News Chronicle

'First Class'

'Stately homes' NY Times

'Palm Springs' feature HOLIDAY magazine February 1965

Mr Punch had a curious canine companion decades before Wallace & Gromit.  His dog was called Toby. 

See more from 'Squires Gin' & the Post Office in the Advertising section pt.2

The Wildcats of St.Trinians

Ronald Searle tried to distance himself from the film adaptations of his St. Trinians, but remained appreciative for the extra income it brought. The last two films made by the modern incarnation of Ealing Films saw Searle benefit with a hefty check that kept him in champagne he said!

'The Wildcats of St. Trinians' was released in 1979 and even then bore little resemblance to Searle's creation, geared towards kids and Dads as Frank 'one take' Launder admits in the video below.   Searle isn't mentioned once either, perhaps thankfully?

I think everyone may have been doing this for the money, including the aging Launder and some of Britain's best known actors of the era. Searle agreed to do the poster art but it looks like it was massacred by an art director with other ideas.

Searle himself appeares in The Belles of St. Trinian's (1954) as a visiting parent