Pioneering publisher, SelfMadeHero, is preparing for the autumn with three distinctly different graphic novels that variously celebrate working-class solidarity in early 20th-century Britain, the experience of coming out and learning to be true to yourself later on in life, and the inspirational achievements of a multi-gold-medal-winning Olympic legend.
The book that celebrates working-class solidarity in early 20th-century Britain is The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists by Irishman, Robert Noonan, writing as Robert Tressell, Authors Scarlett and Sophie Rickard have adapted Tressell’s 1914 socialist novel about English working-class life as a graphic novel. Based largely on Tressell’s own experiences as a house painter in southern England, this compelling picture of socio-economic life in early 20th-century Britain remains relevant today. This faithful, fully researched, and beautiful full-colour adaptation of Tressell’s enduring novel relates the journey to political enlightenment of its hero, the journeyman housepainter Frank Owen, and his persuasive conviction that capitalism is the true source of the poverty that he and his fellow workers are forced to endure. (Tony Canavan wrote about The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists in Books Ireland Mar/Apr 2018). Scarlett and Sophie Rickard’s graphic adaptation is a work of art about work. The other two novels are When I Came Out by Anne Mette Kærulf Lorentzen, and Zátopek: “When you can’t keep going, go faster!” by Jan Novák and Jaromír 99. For full details, see selfmadehero.com.
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Tony Canavan,
Consultant Editor, Books Ireland
