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

[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!