In 1969, cartoonist Ronald Searle’s wife Monica was diagnosed with a particularly virulent form of breast cancer and given six months to live. She went on to undergo a series of experimental and particularly unpleasant chemotherapy treatments.

During this distressing period, Searle was determined to do something to support his wife and has claimed “I have only my talent for drawing, so I drew”. The result is currently being exhibited, in association with many cancer and women’s charities, in The Cartoon Museum under the title ‘Les tres riches heures de Mrs Mole’. These tokens of love and support were never meant for publication and consist of 47 pocket-sized images detailing the potterings of Mrs Mole, the alter ego of Monica, about her provencal residence. The house in which Mrs Mole is seen drinking tea and champagne, arranging flowers and admiring views represents one the couple had bought a few months previous to Monica’s diagnosis. Thus the life of Mrs Mole is the idyllic life she might picture and look forward to during her treatment.

I have only my talent for drawing, so I drew Ronald Searle, cartoonist

Ronald Searle is regarded by many contemporaries, and indeed introduced in the exhibition, as the greatest living cartoonist. The illustrator of Molesworth and St Trinian’s, he has also worked for many high profile magazines including Life. He began his career detailing the horrors of the WWII Japanese camps where he was held as a prisoner of way for three and a half years. He still continues to draw, having celebrated his 90th birthday last year.

Searle’s work is often associated with a darkly mischievous humour, as shown in the misbehaviour and trickery of the St Trinian’s schoolgirls and in the Molesworth cartoons. As in all his cartoons, this collection wonderfully portrays the character of his subject, but in detailing the life of Mrs Mole, Searle only portrays peace and content in the possible future represented by the drawings. The cartoons are full of hope and light and Mrs Mole herself is delightful as she goes about her pastimes, planting, picking and arranging brightly coloured flowers, looking in her patchwork store and gazing at birds and butterflies that flutter about the terraces.

The exhibition ends with a cartoon not part of the series entitled ‘The Beautiful Dream comes True in which Mrs Mole flies towards the open arms of Mr Mole’. This was produced a few months before the Searles moved into their house in Provence previously only occupied in the cartoons by Mrs Mole. After five years of difficult treatment, Monica Searle had survived the cancer and they have been living there for the last 35 years.

The Cartoon Museum is charming, well worth a visit in itself, and an ideal location for this exhibition. Searle’s distinctive and masterful style is shown in the cartoons but they are uniquely optimistic and uplifting. The collection of small drawings, personal tokens of Searle’s affection and concern for his wife, is genuinely moving, and I would greatly recommend a visit.