Join us in the Great Hall for the second event in our Jane Austen Book Club series.

Patchwork: A Graphic Biography of Jane Austen

Kate Evans

“What are you reading?” “Oh! It is only a graphic novel!”

Only some work in which the greatest powers of Jane Austen’s mind are displayed, in which the most thorough knowledge of her nature and her liveliest effusions of wit and humour, are conveyed to the world with the best-chosen pictures.

In her later years, Jane Austen made a patch­work quilt. She folded thousands of tiny scraps of fabric over diamond-shaped slips of paper and painstakingly stitched them together. Kate Evans employs these slivers of cloth to illustrate Jane Austen’s life story. Evans teases apart the threads that connect Austen’s beloved novels, the events of her life, and the fabric of society in Regency England.

Patchwork is a major new work of graphic biography. Kate Evans has an unparalleled ability to marry drama, comedy, and historically im­mersive detail, bringing Austen’s story to life with fluid, dynamic artwork, at times embroi­dered onto cloth itself. The author’s love for Austen shines throughout. Her incredible eye for historical detail – panes of glass, bits of lace, hedgelaying styles, the cut of a coat or the architecture of a Hampshire cottage – creates a captivating vision of Jane Austen’s world.

About the Author:

Kate Evans is a writer, cartoonist, illustrator and public speaker with thirty years’ experience. Her previous books include the highly acclaimed Red Rosa and the Orwell Prize–longlisted Threads. Patchwork is her eighth work of graphic non-fiction.

Tickets: £15 (includes a glass of fizz) | £50 season ticket to all JABC events onsite and online.