Sensible Footwear: A Girl's Guide - A graphic guide to lesbian and queer history 1950-2020 - Softcover

Kate Charlesworth

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0993563341 ISBN 13: 9780993563348

Publisher: Myriad Editions (Graphic Novels), 2019

Synopsis

"A stunning achievement – as a graphic study of LGBT history, and as a memoir of growing up gay from the 1950s onwards. Kate’s fluid and tellingly detailed drawing reveals not only the frustrations and traumas of lesbian life, but also the laughter and camaraderie... and a glorious cavalcade of gay icons." Posy Simmonds

"This joyous personal history of British LGBTQ life leaves no stone unturned. It is an amazing, joyous panorama to which I could never do justice in a short review. Let me, then, just say this. Sensible Footwear is an instant classic." Rachel Cooke, The Observer Graphic Novel of the Month

Cartoonist Kate Charlesworth presents a glorious pageant of LGBT history, as she takes us on a PRIDE march from the 1950s to the present day. Peopled by a cast of gay icons such as Dusty Springfield, Billie Jean King, Dirk Bogarde and Alan Turing, and featuring key moments such as Stonewall and Section 28, Sensible Footwear is the first graphic history charting lesbian life from 1950 to the present – a stunning, personal, graphic memoir and a milestone itself in LGBT history.

In 1950, when Kate was born, male homosexuality carried a custodial sentence. But female homosexuality had never been an offence in the UK, effectively rendering lesbians even more invisible than they already were – often to themselves. Growing up in Yorkshire, the young Kate had to find role models wherever she could, in real life, books, film and TV.

Sensible Footwear is a fascinating history of how post-war Britain transformed from a
country hostile towards 'queer' lives to the LGBQTI+ universe of today, recording the
political gains and challenges against a backdrop of Kate’s personal experience: realising her own sexuality, coming out to her parents, embracing lesbian and gay culture, losing friends to AIDS.

About this title

Review:

'The often hidden history of lesbians in Britain ... comes alive through the vivid recreations of acclaimed cartoonist Kate Charlesworth.'

-- Paul Gravett, The Bookseller

'A crucial cornerstone in building our future by making sure we remember our past. And Kate’s style – feisty, questioning, open, witty and sometimes angry – is the perfect vehicle to communicate that lived history of feminism, activism and liberation history in a uniquely accessible way.'

-- Val McDermid

'Newsworthy, covetable and will become a classic.'

--Adele Patrick, Glasgow Women's Library

'Kate's insightful work has illuminated and documented LGBTQ life – an important work.'

--David Isaac, chair of Equality and Human Rights Commission

'What a superbly structured, brilliant but biting history and vital entertainment this is! It is laugh! It’s a riot! It is a genuine milestone.'

--Stephen Holland, Page 45

About the Author:

Kate Charlesworth is a cartoonist and illustrator living and working in Edinburgh, originally from Barnsley, South Yorkshire. After art college in Manchester she began work as a freelance illustrator in London where, along with David Shenton - as cartoonists accidentally documented L&G - she was part of (as it was then known) the `golden age' of Gay publishing. Her work has appeared in newspapers, magazines, books, indie comics, exhibitions and electronic media and she has drawn storyboards for Hot Animation and Aardman Animations. In 2014 she collaborated with Mary and Bryan Talbot - 2012 Costa biography winners for their graphic novel Dotter of Her Father's Eyes - to illustrate Sally Heathcote: Suffragette, published by Jonathan Cape.

About this edition

• Publisher: Myriad Editions (Graphic Novels)
• Publication date: 2019
• ISBN 10: 0993563341
• ISBN 13: 9780993563348
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 272