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Andrew Mortimer's avatar

You slagged off Al Murray and then lump him in with Larkin and Heaney! Make your mind up! lol ..you hate lols I bet. Lol…err sorry! Did you know though..that the master…my beloved Ronald Searle only just scraped a pass for his drawing exam at Cambridge?…341/690!! 330 was the pass mark!

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David Waywell's avatar

Ha. I hadn't spotted that Al Murray shares the same surname as the poet I was referencing who is Les Murray. I knew that about Searle. I think his treatment in the UK probably explained why he quit to live in France.

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Andrew Mortimer's avatar

Well I hope to find that out…just got 4 searle books in the post and one more to come..one is about Paris .

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David Waywell's avatar

Ooh, which are they? They're all great, of course, but I prefer his earlier black and white books. 'The Second Coming of Toulouse-Lautrec' is a favourite but if you can find a copy (it's really rare) his sketches in his Secret Paris Notebook are even better. It's good that you can even find the odd decently priced copy of books signed. I think I have one or two signed. Plus my postcard. Absolute hero of mine right at the top with Steadman.

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Andrew Mortimer's avatar

35 quid for…kwai and back, king of beasts, slightly foxed, ah yes I remember it well, Searle and Cambridge. I’ve got more Steadmans than Searle and don’t really collect books anymore..theyre the exception though.

I did think about lautrec about 10 years ago…maybe it’s a bit risqué? Perhaps didn’t want daughter looking at it. Signed?? Well jel as young people say.

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David Waywell's avatar

There's really nothing explicit in either of them, even the Secret Sketchbook. I think it's more a selling point. Excellent books both.

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Andrew Mortimer's avatar

Well it’ll be going on the wish list then

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