“We were three perfectionists who never disagreed!” – Kate Charlesworth, Mary & Bryan Talbot at the Edinburgh International Book Festival

Comics as a medium aren’t usually associated with the biography genre, despite having a proud heritage in that vein with the work of such celebrated creators as Alison Bechdel, Harvey Pekar and Art Spiegelman.  It came as something of a surprise, then, when Dotter of Her Father’s Eyes, a graphic novel by husband-and-wife team Bryan and Mary Talbot, won the Costa biography award in 2012.  The duo have since joined forces with cartoonist Kate Charlesworth to create another graphic biography, this time telling the story of a prominent member of the suffragette movement in early-20th century Britain.  Sally Heathcote: Suffragette was published back in May, and the three creators were talking about it last week at the Edinburgh International Book Festival.

The event began with a theatrical flourish, as LGBT choir Loud and Proud staged a re-enactment of a suffragette march within the confines of the festival’s Garden Theatre.  The history of the women’s suffrage movement and the creation of Sally Heathcote remained the focus throughout, which was refreshing because, with a comics titan like Bryan Talbot present, the event could easily have turned into a celebration of past glories.  It did not, in fact, pass without comment that despite having spent 40 years in the business and producing such classics as The Adventures of Luther Arkwright, Alice in Sunderland and Grandville, Talbot did not start winning literary awards until he began working with his wife!  The idea to tell Sally’s story was actually Mary’s, and she had it in 2010 almost as soon as they’d finished work on Dotter of Her Father’s Eyes.  Following Sally’s life was a way to examine a movement that Mary believes most of us in the UK still don’t know enough about, and her personal triumphs and tragedies map the rocky progress of the suffragette cause as the book progresses.  Due to time constraints, Bryan was unable to provide full artwork for the book, so they brought in Kate Charlesworth to work from his layouts.  Despite all being self-proclaimed perfectionists, the three creators said their collaboration had gone very smoothly, possible because the whole thing was done via email!

So why tell the story of Sally Heathcote in a graphic medium?  Bryan said that they were able to play to “the strengths of comics” on many occasions, rendering unflinching depictions of the brutal treatment endured by many suffragettes at the hands of the police and members of the public, and using colour and juxtaposed images to create a dense work which remained easy to follow.  Additionally, the format allowed them to do justice to the ‘visual’ element of the movement, which saw women throughout the UK use crafts and merchandising to spread their message far and wide.  Mary said that she’d intended the book to be a teaching tool, and the pages of notes and annotations at the end of Sally Heathcote: Suffragette attest to that.  It remains, she said, very important to remember that women’s right to vote was secured only through hard-fought battle, a history which is all too easily forgotten by people who live in a more democratic age.