Visar resultat för..."Posy Simmonds"

In the course of a career spanning more than fifty years, Posy Simmonds has become one of Britain’s best-known satirical cartoonists. She is also as a much-loved author and artist of widely translated children’s books and graphic novels. These include Fred, animated in 1996 into the Oscar-nominated short film Famous Fred, and Gemma Bovery and Tamara Drewe, both adapted into films, increasing her international fame. Simmonds once described her job on a census form as ‘a visual engineer’. Her extraordinary precision of drawing, her powers of observation and her sharp but welltempered wit have made her one the Britain’s most sophisticated innovators, renowned especially for expanding the scope and subtlety of comics. This is the first book to explore Simmonds’s life and work from her early childhood to the present day. In a series of interviews with Paul Gravett she offered insights into her creative process and provided unprecedented access to her ‘workroom’ and archives containing sketchbooks and rare or never-before-seen artworks. A portrait emerges of Posy Simmonds as a chronicler and critic of contemporary British society and a storyteller in words and pictures of rare perception and humanity.

The brilliant graphic novel behind the major new film starring Gemma Aterton (Quantum of Solace), Jason Flemyng (Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels), Fabrice Luchini (In the House) and Mel Raido (Spooks)Gemma is the bored, pretty second wife of Charlie Bovery, the reluctant stepmother of his children and the bête-noire of his ex-wife. Gemma's sudden windfall and distaste for London take them across the Channel to Normandy, where the charms of French country living soon wear off. Is it a coincidence that Gemma Bovery has a name rather like Flaubert's notorious heroine? Is it by chance that, like Madame Bovary, Gemma is bored, adulterous, and a bad credit risk? Is she inevitably doomed? These questions consume Gemma's neighbour, the intellectual baker, Joubert. Denying voyeurism, but nevertheless noting every change in the fit of her jeans, every addition to Gemma's wardrobe, her love-bites and lovers, Joubert, with the help of the heroine's diaries, follows her path towards ruin. Adultery and its consequences. Disappointment and deception. The English in France. Fat and slim. Then and now.

Winner of the Grand Prix 2009 de la Critique Bande Dessinée.Tamara Drewe has transformed herself. Plastic surgery, a different wardrobe, a smouldering look, have given her confidence and a new and thrilling power to attract, which she uses recklessly. Often just for the fun of it.People are drawn to Tamara Drewe, male and female. In the remote village where her late mother lived Tamara arrives to clear up the house. Here she becomes an object of lust, of envy, the focus of unrequited love, a seductress. To the village teenagers she is 'plastic-fantastic', a role model. Ultimately, when her hot and indiscriminate glances lead to tragedy, she is seen as a man-eater, a heartless home-wrecker, a slut.First appearing as a serial in the Guardian, in book form Tamara Drewe has been enlarged, embellished and lovingly improved by the author.

***WINNER OF THE COMEDY WOMEN IN PRINT PRIZE 2020***'Simmonds is a copper-bottomed genius... she is as brilliant a writer as Britain has' Jenny Colgan, Mail OnlineCassandra Darke is an art dealer, mean, selfish, solitary by nature, living in Chelsea in a house worth £7 million.She has become a social pariah, but doesn't much care. Between one Christmas and the next, she has sullied the reputation of a West End gallery and has acquired a conviction for fraud, a suspended sentence and a bank balance drained by lawsuits. On the scale of villainy, fraud seems to Cassandra a rather paltry offence - her own crime involving 'no violence, no weapon, no dead body'.But in Cassandra's basement, her young ex-lodger, Nicki, has left a surprise, something which implies at least violence and probably a body . . . Something which forces Cassandra out of her rich enclave and onto the streets. Not those local streets paved with gold and lit with festive glitter, but grimmer, darker places, where she must make the choice between self-sacrifice and running for her life.

First published in 2003, Literary Life became an instant classic as readers (and writers) delighted in watching Posy Simmonds skewer the pains and pretensions of the writer’s (and reader’s) calling with her inimitable flair for witty satire and sharp social observation. As well as all the cartoons and comic strips from the original edition, The Complete Literary Life includes 40 extra pages of cartoons, including the two series Rick Raker and Dr Derek, in which two very different heroes attempt to right the wrongs afflicting the writing world, one by brute force and skulduggery, the other with a silky bedside manner.

Vinnare av Urhundenplaketten 2012 för 2011 års bästa översatta seriealbum!

Löst baserad på romanen Fjärran från vimlets yra (1920) av den engelske författaren Thomas Hardy har Posy Simmonds skapat ett drama i serieformat som väl speglar ett härligt grymt England av idag. Serien gick ursprungligen som veckostrip i The Guardian och blev vinnare av kritikerpriset Prix de la critique på International Comics Festival i Angoulême 2009.

Boken har även filmatiserats av Stephen Frears där Gemma Aderton spelade rollen som Tamara.

Boken inleds med ett förord av Andres Lokko.

Långt ut på den engelska landsbygden driver mr och mrs Hardiman ett gästhem för författare, Stonefield Farm. Där ägnar mrs Hardiman stor omsorg åt att ta hand om gästerna, renskriver manus, tar hand om gårdens djur, serverar eftermiddagste och ser till att mr Hardiman, gästerna och de anställda har allt de kan önska av lugn, komfort och service.

Inget tycks hota idyllen till den dagen då flickan från granngården oväntat återvänder från London. Med sin perfekta (opererade) näsa och sin karismatiska utstrålning påverkar Tamara alla som kommer i hennes närhet, den ständigt otrogne författaren, lantbrukaren, den frustrerade forskaren, rockmusikern och ortens uttråkade ungdomar.

Tamaras oemotståndliga skönhet och faiblesse för farliga förbindelser leder oundvikligen fram till tragedier som både är gripande och absurda.

Detta är en serie fylld med brittisk humor och så nära en bra feel good-serie man kan komma.

Fred’s owners, Sophie and Nick, think he is the laziest cat in the world, but who knows what goes on after dark?It’s only after their beloved pet dies, that they discover he has been leading an exciting double life...'Enchanting, an instant classic' Sunday Telegraph'Fred is pure delight' Guardian

Studios of Their Own travels around the world examining the unique spaces, habits and rituals of over 50 famous artists.From Picasso, to Hockney, to Caravaggio, discover the eclectic creative spaces used by artistic visionaries, brought to life with evocative illustrations.Crossing centuries, continents and genres, Alex Johnson explores these artists’ workspaces and habits. How do they practise their craft? What do they look for in a studio? Do they work in silence or with music… in a shared space or in solitude? How do they harness the light? And how do their physical spaces affect and inspire their output?This striking collection focuses on more than 50 international artists, including:Claude Monet, who created an inspirational garden in which to work en plein air and paint his famous water liliesFrida Kahlo, forced to work from her bed, inspired by the lucky talismans she surrounded herself withJean-Michel Basquiat, working in an old stable, could turn anything into canvas, walking and lying on his works as he created themLee Krasner’s art dramatically changed when she moved from her small studio into the larger, light-filled one that she took over when her husband, Jackson Pollock, diedIn looking at the working lives of our favourite artists, readers will be transported to other worlds, as well as gaining a deeper insight into the creative process.Also in the series: Rooms of Their Own: Where Great Writers Write.

Overheard mobile pronouncements are a modern phenomenon. In the street, in the park, in supermarkets, buses, waiting rooms and even, heaven help us, in libraries, it’s quite impossible to get away from these tasty or repellent fragments of other people’s private lives. Wherever you lurk, their outbursts of despair or irritation ring out: mega-tantrums, in-jokes, celebrity spottings, instant post-mortems, office politics, whoops of joy and anger, weather reports, devilishly dull domestic details, parental problems, health issues, holiday plans, money matters, dinner menus, ultimatums, gossip, sporting news, amorous overtures, business deals – and any number of time-wasting pleasantries.From the stunningly mundane to the shockingly direct, the sublime to the ridiculous, here is a brilliantly curated collection of overheard mobile conversational gems.

The members of the Saddle Club - Stevie Lake, Carole Hanson, and Lisa Atwood - are buzzing with excitement. For weeks, they've been planning Pine Hollow Stables' gymkhana, a day of games and races for young riders. As the day draws near, Carole introduces the other girls to her new friend, Kate Devine. Carole begins to teach Kate the basics of riding, only to find out that Kate is much more experienced than she's letting on - she's a championship rider! Kate might become the fourth member of the Saddle Club...if she doesn't give up riding first. Stevie's got a problem of her own when her older brother Chad suddenly decides to start riding at Pine Hollow. But there's an even bigger surprise in store - he's got a crush on a member of the Saddle Club!

In postwar Britain, journalists and politicians predicted that the class system would not survive a consumer culture where everyone had TVs and washing machines, and where more and more people owned their own homes. They were to be proved hopelessly wrong. Lifestyle revolution charts how class culture, rather than being destroyed by mass consumption, was remade from flat-pack furniture, Mediterranean cuisine and lifestyle magazines. Novelists, cartoonists and playwrights satirised the tastes of the emerging middle classes, while sociologists claimed that an entire population was suffering from 'status anxiety', but underneath it all, a new order was being constructed out of duvets, quiches and mayonnaise, easy chairs from Habitat, white emulsion paint and ubiquitous pine kitchen tables. More than just a world of symbolic goods, this was an intimate environment alive with new feelings and attitudes.

'Rich, moving and wryly funny... a delight' Observer *Graphic Novel of the Month*'Brilliant, witty and endlessly inventive' Joe Dunthorne, author of SubmarineA road-trip across Europe and back in time: the debut graphic memoir from the prize-winning author of A Funeral In Freiburg.When her imperious, chain-smoking German Jewish grandmother dies, it falls to Astrid and her father to drive a hire van to the Black Forest and collect the family heirlooms from Gisela's nicotine-stained apartment.In Freiburg, they are faced with several lifetimes’ worth of belongings to sort through - infested Persian rugs, mysterious photographs, a toy monkey that started a marriage - and a grasping landlord, impatient to renovate.As the list of demands from uncles, sisters and cousins grows longer, the rabbit-holes of history and memory grow deeper. Long-buried secrets and tales of survival are revealed - from Nazi Germany to colonial Africa - and old feuds are reignited, as father and daughter struggle with the responsibility of preserving the family legacy. More importantly, will they be able to fit everything into a medium wheel-base transit van?Funny, bittersweet and beautifully drawn, The Crystal Vase is an odyssey of family arguments, identity crises, and late discoveries.

A stunning detective story from the winner of the World Illustration Award**OBSERVER GRAPHIC NOVEL OF THE MONTH Pick for March**'Could not be more rich or more beautiful if it tried' OBSERVERIn this stunning reimagining of a nineteenth-century Russian crime thriller from the world of Dostoevsky, Carol Adlam presents Charlie Fox, stunt journalist, magician, liar and thief, who reluctantly returns to her hometown of Nowheregrad to investigate the murder of Elena Ruslanova, daughter of a fabulously wealthy glass manufacturer.In Nowheregrad Charlie finds herself caught up in a multi-layered story that is told through the richly varied visual devices of the time. With the unwitting assistance of her lover, Netochka, Charlie unravels the mystery of the Bobrov family, only to face the truth about herself.Exquisitely drawn and compellingly told, Adlam's complex, elegant narrative brings to life the lost legacies of early crime fiction and the first women journalists and detectives.**A GUARDIAN GRAPHIC NOVEL OF THE YEAR**

A gritty, dark tale of infectious disease gone wrong - the timely graphic novel from Sunday Times bestselling author Val McDermid, stunningly illustrated by Kathryn Briggs'A brilliant and timely story, told with McDermid's verve, style and passion. I couldn't stop turning the pages, even when I could barely take the tension. Wonderful.' Denise MinaIt's the summer solstice weekend, and 150,000 people descend on a farm in the northeast of England for an open-air music festival. At first, a spot of rain seems to be the only thing dampening the fun - until a mystery bug appears. Before long, the illness is spreading at an electrifying speed and seems resistant to all antibiotics. Can journalist Zoe Meadows track the outbreak to its source, and will a cure be found before the disease becomes a pandemic?A heart-racing thriller, Resistance imagines a nightmare pandemic that seems only too credible in the wake of COVID-19. Number one bestseller and queen of crime Val McDermid has teamed up with illustrator Kathryn Briggs to create a masterful graphic novel.'One of today's most accomplished crime writers' Literary Review'A powerful, unique look at the benign origins of catastrophe' Kirkus Reviews

P.G. Wodehouse was, by common consent, the most brilliant writer of English comedy in the 20th century, equally celebrated on both sides of the Atlantic. He achieved the unusual distinction of combining the widest possible popularity with the highest literary standards, attracting both the devotion of readers and the respect of his peers from Hilaire Belloc to Graham Greene. Several of his characters have already entered popular mythology. This anthology includes two novels, fourteen short stories and extracts from Wodehouse's autobiography.The Code of the Woosters was written in 1938 when Wodehouse was at the height of his powers. The vintage plot involves Bertie Wooster attempting to steal a cream jug from a country house at the behest of his aunt Dahlia - or, as Bertiehimself puts it, 'the sinister affair of Gussie Fink-Nottle, Madeleine Bassett, old Pop bassett, Stiffy Byng, the Rev H.P. ('Stinker') Pinker, the eighteenth-century cow-creamer and the small, brown, leather-covered notebook.' The outcome is a dazzlingly intricate plot and a wonderfully satisfying farce.Uncle Fred in the Springtime, published in 1939, brings one of the author's favourite characters, Uncle Fred aka Lord Ickenham, to his most celebrated comic location, Blandings Castle, where the dastardly Duke of Dunstable is again attempting to steal Lord Emsworth's prize pig. Called in to thwart the duke, Uncle Fred poses as pompous 'looney-doctor' Sir Roderick Glossop, with complicated results. The short stories feature all Wodehouse's most famous creations - Jeeves and Wooster, Ukridge, Bingo Little, Mr Mulliner, the Earls of Emsworth and Ickenham. Finally, extracts from Over Seventy, a memoir as amusing and beautifully written as the novels, offer an insight into the attitudes and working habits of a very private man.

A romantic and comic gem from a precocious Victorian nine-year-old that has charmed readers for a centuryThe Young Visiters is a comic masterpiece that has delighted generations of readers since it was first published in 1919. A classic story of life and love in later Victorian England as seen from the nursery window, it was written in 1890 by nine-year-old Daisy Ashford.It all starts when Alfred Salteena, who is 'not quite the right side of the blanket', takes young Ethel Montacue to stay with his friend Bernard Clarke... Daisy Ashford has an exquisite eye for matchmaking and manners in English society, and her tale, with its hilarious observation and idiosyncratic spelling, is as irresistible today as it ever was.This edition of The Young Visiters is illustrated with drawings by Posy Simmonds which are as enchanting and witty as the story. The text has been transcribed from the original manuscript and includes J.M. Barrie's famous preface to the first edition.