Hands up the girl who burnt down the east wing last night

[sovay]

Ronald Searle. I was in college before I'd heard of St. Trinian's and graduate school before I was introduced to Molesworth. What we had in the house when I was growing up was Too Many Songs by Tom Lehrer with Not Enough Drawings by Ronald Searle (1981), which traumatized me slightly at an impressionable age with its enthusiastic renderings of "The Irish Ballad" and "Poisoning Pigeons in the Park." I don't have even the marginal artistic skills I'd need to send him off in the appropriate fashion, so all I can say is: ave atque vale, as any fule kno; I'm off to knock somebody's head in with a hockey stick and set something on fire.

Donald Swann with Charlotte Mitchell & Shirley Hall, "Surly Girls"

Hail St. Trinian's Senior High!
Here's to our motto 'Do or Die!'
Kick the girls and make them cry!
Up! St. Trinian's girls!

Comments

[nineweaving.livejournal.com]

Oh, not Ronald Searle! Damn.

I love his stuff dearly.

Nine

[sovay]

Oh, not Ronald Searle! Damn.

He was ninety-one. Older than my grandfather.

I love his stuff dearly.

His stuff is wonderful.

[ap-aelfwine.livejournal.com]

May he rest in peace.

...all I can say is: ave atque vale, as any fule kno; I'm off to knock somebody's head in with a hockey stick and set something on fire.

An appropriate tribute, that, I reckon. Please be careful as you're doing these things.

...was Too Many Songs by Tom Lehrer with Not Enough Drawings by Ronald Searle (1981)...

Sounds like a match made in Heaven. Okay, well, maybe not there, exactly... I think I'm going to have to ILL it, in any event.

[sovay]

Sounds like a match made in Heaven. Okay, well, maybe not there, exactly... I think I'm going to have to ILL it, in any even

It's the sheet music for a substantial number of Tom Lehrer's songs with, indeed, not enough illustrations by Ronald Searle, but the ones there are are doozies. Our copy has been falling apart for years; I'm constantly on the lookout in good-quality used book stores for a replacement. It's one of those artifacts that just needed to exist.

[desperance.livejournal.com]

I see the paperback over here every now and then. I could pick you up a copy in decent nick, most likely, if you'd like that.

[sovay]

I see the paperback over here every now and then. I could pick you up a copy in decent nick, most likely, if you'd like that.

You keep offering me books! I'm going to owe you a library!

[ap-aelfwine.livejournal.com]

It's one of those artifacts that just needed to exist.

Indeed.

I'm going to look for more Searle, in general. I'm thinking I'm seeing his influence on a lot of illustrators in a way I'd never really thought of, before, and I'd like to develop my thoughts enough to get a better idea of whether it's really there or not.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

A fellow PoW, the Australian writer Russell Braddon, remarked that they would only have known that Searle was dead if he had stopped drawing. "If you can imagine something that weighs six stone or so, is on the point of death and has no qualities of the human condition that are not revolting," Braddon wrote, "calmly lying there with a pencil and a scrap of paper, drawing, you have some idea of the difference of temperament that this man had from the ordinary human being."

That's an artist.

[sovay]

That's an artist.

I had known that about him vaguely; not the details.

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

The obituaries have been obsessing about St Trinians, while admitting that Searle grew to detest it (because, I think, it eclipsed everything else he did); so thank you for this reminder of other things.

Molesworth was my first exposure to Searle; I also imprinted on his illustrations for The Thirteen Clocks, and was shocked to discover that they were not the originals...

[sovay]

so thank you for this reminder of other things.

You're welcome. I also knew someone who had a cartoon of his about the opera framed on their wall.

I also imprinted on his illustrations for The Thirteen Clocks, and was shocked to discover that they were not the originals...

I bet they were great!

[ashlyme.livejournal.com]

Damn. That's a great pity. My aunt had one of the Molesworth books in her bungalow; I liked it very much, and the St Trinian films, as a kid. I rewatched Belles again recently, and Alistair Sim was as good as I'd remembered.

[ashlyme.livejournal.com]

...Lehrer *and* Searle? Blimey!

[sovay]

I rewatched Belles again recently, and Alistair Sim was as good as I'd remembered.

I still have to see that. I love Alastair Sim.

...Lehrer *and* Searle? Blimey!

It's a great book!