Radio Times

I've fallen behind posting material that contributors have sent me. Many thanks to Matthew Davis who sent these scans of Searle's early career work for Radio Times magazine. He collated them from various retrospectives of Radio Times art published over the years.

Apparently this one set in the cemetery was specifically assigned to Searle because of his “Paris Sketchbook”.

Christmas 1947

RADIO TIMES - JUNE 29 - JULY 5, 1947 RONALD SEARLE - ODD MAN OUT COVER

". . . During the Second World War, Searle was captured by Japanese forces in Singapore and from 1942 was kept as a prisoner at Changi, where he was forced to work on the Burma railway by day but by night secretly continued his cartoons. 

He created St Trinian's while a prisoner and though he had been drawing professionally since he left school, it was after the war that his career brought him fame - and then in 1947 the accolade of drawing the Christmas cover for Radio Times.

His work for Radio Times included many sketches accompanying dramas such as the first play by John Galsworthy, best known now for The Forsyte Saga, in 1948 and productions of John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men in 1949. But he also illustrated documentaries and talks, of which the most striking was 1947's The Enigma of the Japanese (left): Searle drew the Radio Times billing and appeared in the programme itself to discuss his wartime captivity.

Searle's drawings were collected in The Art of Radio Times, published in 1981, and many of his wartime pieces are held at the Imperial War Museum in London."

-William Gallagher,  03 January 2012

The Rakes Progress pt.4

Here are the last of The British Museum pics. I've posted them all very hi-res so click the images to see better the details in the enlargments. Thanks again to Pete Western for the photos.

Above we can observe in the crowd on the left Searle's technique of scratching into the ink work. He would often do this to hair to give an extra feeling of depth when reproduced smaller in magazines. We can see it too in the next image to define the raindrops.

The Rakes Progress pt.3

The Rakes Progress pt.2

A couple months back I met up with fellow Searle fan Pete Western for a visit to the Prints & Drawings dept. at the British Museum in London. They hold all the original drawings for Searle's 'The Rakes Progress'. There are several boxes of drawings & we only had time to look through a couple. The museum allowed us to photograph the drawings for personal use only as the copyright resides with the artist. Mr Searle granted me permission to publish the photos so I hope the British Museum is OK with this post. It was enlightening to see the original artwork. The printed pages tend to lose a lot of the nuance of Searle's drawings. But in the photographs you can see the various media & techniques he used. Here's a scan of a page from the printed book. Click on the image to see the enlarged detail. I was surprised to see that this one was drawn without ink at all but in crayon. Thanks to Pete for the excellent photographs. More to come soon . . . Part 1 of 'The Rake's Progress' here.

Changi Gaol 3

This just in from reader Mike Poole. His grandfather George 'Piggy' Poole was interned in Changi Gaol with Searle & collaborated on prison magazine 'SURVIVOR' with him. Mike has a copy of the magazine in his possession & sent me the following scans.


This issue features a story written by Poole & illustrated by Searle.

Letter from Searle to Poole:

Sonia Kretschmar dug up the following article on 'The Survivor'

Changi Gaol part 1 and part 2

Happy Bastille Day!

Lunch with the Searles

After my previous visit with Mr Searle which lasted barely 2 hours I was of course keen to meet him again & discuss his work. The more I find out about Searle's art the more questions seem to arise. I was delighted to receive an invitation to lunch from Mr & Mrs Searle which was appointed for the 20th June & they suggested I bring a friend too.
I asked my good pal Uli Meyer to come along. I've worked with Uli a lot in commercial animation and, like me, he's a huge Searle fan. Uli's a tremendous artist and I knew that Mr Searle would be interested to see Uli's work too.


We met at noon in the Searles favourite restaurant & Ronald immediately got the champagne & conversation flowing. Over several subsequent bottles of wine & delicious courses from the excellent menu we talked about myriad subjects. Of course drawing & art was prevalent but it was fascinating also to hear Ronald & Monica's tales of travelling, family history, famous friends & acquaintances and battles with ill health. Both are in their 80s now (or 'the late afternoon of their lives' as Monica likes to put it) but they retain an exuberant vitality. Generous & welcoming they made both Uli & I feel like old friends.




I asked Ronald of all the far flung destinations that the HOLIDAY assignments took them which was their favourite. Rather than exotic Hawaii or Morocco they said it was Alaska. Despite the sub-zero temperatures it was the friendliness of the people that made the trip memorable. They told us a strange story of being greeted by the proprietor of a remote store who told them he had been expecting them. Noticing Searle's name in the ledger book he enquired if he was the Ronald Searle. On affirmation of this he revealed that he was a huge fan and possessed a full collection of Searle's books. Not only that but he had a bottle of champagne on ice and a sketchbook ready for Searle to draw the man's dog!

Another amusing anecdote the Searles told was when they discovered the hard way that seal skins are cured with urine! They went to a cinema one evening & the combined heat & over-powering ammonia saw that they left after 5 minutes!

Ever the fashionista Monica had an Eskimo jacket tailored for her trimmed with wolverine fur. Later at their house she took out the jacket to show us. After 40 years it was still in perfect condition & thankfully smelt fine. She even let me try it on-it can withstand temperatures well below -20 & wearing it in summertime haute Provence meant I was soon feeling very toasty!


Good news for Searle fans is that a book is in the works based on the HOLIDAY sketches. These have been collected before in 'FROM FROZEN NORTH TO FILTHY LUCRE' but was not definitive. The Hawaii drawings were not included & most of the sketches from Morocco remain unpublished.

Searle visit 2

Uli Meyer and I both have brief accounts of our afternoon spent with the Searles last weekend. See Uli's blog & mine to read more. I'm working on an extended report to appear here soon . . .

I've also updated the Festival of Britain and Punch Theatre sections.

Mr Searle was kind enough to send me this recent photo taken by local photographer Dominique Postera. He turned 89 this year & looks in fine form. Next weekend I'll be visiting Mr Searle again - I'm excited to have another chance to discuss his work & drawing in general.