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3 January 2012
Last updated at
16:53
In pictures: Ronald Searle
British cartoonist Ronald Searle, best known for creating the fictional girls' school St Trinian's, has died aged 91. The spindly cartoons of the naughty schoolgirls first appeared in 1941. In 1954, the stories were adapted for the first of six films. The Belles of St Trinian's starred Alistair Sim in the dual roles of Headmistress Millicent Fritton and Clarence Fritton.
Searle also provided illustrations for the Molesworth series, which was written by author and journalist Geoffrey Willans. The books were based on the adventures of Nigel Molesworth, who attended the fictional prep school St Custard's.
His darkest material was created and inspired by his time as a Japanese prisoner of war during World War II. This drawing was dated August 1945. He documented the conditions he was forced to endure in a series of drawings.
During his time as a prisoner of war, Searle was forced to work on the infamous "Railway of Death" - a Japanese project to create a rail link between Thailand and Burma, the construction of which led to the death of more than 100,000 labourers. He drew this piece to mark the atrocity.
But St Trinian's was his most enduring work. After a 27-year hiatus, the series was revived in 2007, with Rupert Everett in the role of Miss Fritton. A sequel, St Trinian's 2: The Legend of Fritton's Gold, was released two years later.
According to his friend, the cartoonist Gerald Scarfe, Searle's most famous creations were to become a "millstone around his neck" as he felt he could never escape them.
Searle's work regularly appeared in magazines and newspapers, including Punch and The New Yorker. Rather Hot Day appeared in The New Yorker in 1966.
Searle's Eye View was a series of cartoons he created for Punch in the 1960s, of which he chose various famous subjects to portray in his own way.
Guardian artist Steve Bell said Searle's work stood out for its "genuine wit, intelligence and unabashed ambition".
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