Born in London in 1949, John Searl studied Graphic design and illustration at the East London School of Art (under Ralph Steadman) between 1964 and 1968, before beginning a successful career in the exciting world of advertising. He worked mainly as a freelance illustrator in London's West End.

His passion for wildlife and angling led to several successful exhibitions at various galleries both in the U.K. and Australia, where he travelled extensively for seven years. He has illustrated copious numbers of books on a diversity of subjects from architecture through to wildlife, and his first love - angling. He first came to prominence as an illustrator in the world of angling in the early 1990's for his work in the classic angling book (which he helped to produce with Peter Rogers), Red Letter Days; a tribute to their angling hero, Bernard Venables. He has also illustrated books for many other ‘angling greats' including Peter Stone and Fred J Taylor. His work has appeared in several angling magazines over the years and to date, over 50 limited edition prints of his work have been published and have sold extensively throughout the world.

John's other credits include appearances on both radio and television on several occasions, including Wildlife On One with Sir Richard Attenborough, and recently with Jeffrey Palmer in the successful television series The Complete Angler. He is currently completing work on his own book entitled, A Brush With The Avon (due out later this year). It documents the years he has spent fishing this most famous of rivers since he first visited the Royalty Fisheries at Christchurch in 1968 up to the present day.