Pierre Daninos (1913-2005) wrote humorous pieces for the French periodical Le Figaro Littéraire. He created the uncannily popular character Major Thompson, the quintessential embodiment of the Englishman abroad in France, cane steadfastly grasped in hand and newspaper tucked under his arm. Daninos's writings were collected in a series of highly successful books. Ronald Searle (1920-2011) was one of the artists to illustrate the Major.
Merry England, Etc., is Searle's consummately British cartoon collection published in 1956. On November 12, 1971, he and his wife Monica dedicated a copy of the fifteen-year-old book to Daninos and his wife, Marie-Pierre Dourneau (1931-2016). This book has an original Searle watercolor drawing of the very properly attired Major Thompson encountering a flamboyant example of the hippie culture of the 1970's. Searle sagely writes, "England has changed a little since the fifties—and this book . . ."
An original illustration by Searle for one of Daninos's 1955 pieces in Le Figaro depicts the Major looking distinctly out of place even in London. It was auctioned by Christie's in 2000.
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Perdu dans le Labyrinthe Londonien . . . Ronald Searle Le Figaro, February 18, 1955 |
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| https://www.christies.com/en/lot/lot-1971026 |
Another fine Searle version of the Major, noticeably taller and thinner, appears on the cover of Les derniers carnets du Major Thompson (2000). His physical appearance is quite fluid.
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| https://www.amazon.com/Derniers-Carnets-Major-T hompson-French/dp/2259193730 |
Meanwhile, Searle's hippie in the Daninos book is sartorially related to the one on the cover of The New Yorker from earlier that year.
Note: I am indebted to the owner of this book for offering these images to me on a silver platter, as it were. Other collectors in possession of such unpublished works by Ronald Searle may similarly incur my debt and gratitude by sending along crisp, clean images suitable for blogging.
You may not be aware that my friend David from Manhattan has shared with us actor James Mason's copy of this very book here.
James Kirkup of the Independent composed an erudite obituary of Pierre Daninos here back in 2005. It is a very British summing up of the writer and his Major Thompson pieces.
Try as I might to give Searle his due in these posts, there is nothing I can hobble together that is in the league of Perpetua, the Ronald Searle Tribute blog sublimely curated by Matt Jones. He even covers Searle's work for Le Figaro here. It should be plain that I've borrowed from his post and at other times he's borrowed from my blog, so it's all very symbiotic really.
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