Saucy postcards once banned from a seaside town for being too racy have returned to the resort as part of an art exhibition.

Half a century ago, the civic leaders of Eastbourne were so outraged by the naughty pictures, penned by the "king of the saucy postcard", that they were withdrawn from sale.

But Donald McGill, the man who drew the postcards, has finally had the true worth of his work recognised after his death and it will feature in an exhibition in the town.

His risque images sold millions, indeed no seaside holiday would be complete without a note home backed by one of McGill's paintings.

However, his fat ladies and innuendoes incurred the wrath of the censors and he faced more than one prosecution under the Obscene Publications Act during his career.

Several resorts, including nearby Hastings, arbitrarily banned some of his designs from sale. In Brighton, police would regularly swoop on stalls selling the more risqu McGill designs.

In 1953 three of his cards, including one entitled Stick Of Rock Cock, were banned under the Act and he was ordered to pay a fine. He also faced a prosecution in 1957.

In 1954, the year his cards were banned from sale in resorts including Grimsby, he said: "Ultra respectable towns like Eastbourne won't display the cards. They say they are vulgar."

A Sussex police officer said in 1957: "Every two or three years we have a blitz and remove the offensive cards.

"We get complaints from time to time, mostly from religious bodies. When any action is taken it usually results from one of these."

During his life, McGill found support from unlikely sources, including George Orwell, who delighted in the innocent humour.

The famous author wrote in 1942: "What you are really looking at is something as traditional as Greek tragedy, a sort of sub-world of smacked bottoms and scrawny mothers-in-law which is a part of western European consciousness."

The faint hearts of Eastbourne, however, never quite saw it that way - until now.

The retrospective of McGill's work is on display at the town's heritage centre, 39 years after his death in 1962 at the age of 87.

The former curator of the Eastbourne Heritage Centre and unofficial town crier of Eastbourne, Anthony Chamberlain-Brothers, said: "It is the first time his work has been on display here, although there have been books published about him.

"He is buried in Eastbourne and we have had books about his life published but this is the first exhibition of his work.

"It was banned here and he was prosecuted because of the cards he drew.

"I have always called Eastbourne a 'sun-drowned, Bible-bound' town. The churchgoing public would avert their eyes when they saw his work.

"It was always a place for gentlemen built by gentlemen. It was only when the railways came that the common herds arrived and with them the saucy postcards.

"Some of his stuff was extremely rude - but it was never dirty. It wasn't full frontal or anything. It is a lot less vulgar than later designs from the 1960s.

"There would be things like a big fat man lying on his back with a duck standing between his legs commenting, 'What a lot of worms there are around today!'. It is all rather jolly."