We now have our autumn 2022 titles available to pre-order in the shop:
Suzanne – The Jazz Age Goddess of Tennis by Tom Humberstone
Sennen by Shanti Rai
Both have limited signed bookplate editions available while stocks last.
Check them out in the shop here!
Hardcover, 212 pages, Full Colour
The incredible story of Suzanne Lenglen, a woman who changed the face of sport and
society in the trailblazing jazz age, but who few even remember.
One of the greatest tennis players the world has ever seen was a woman few even remember. A championship player by the age of fifteen in a Europe overshadowed by impending war, Suzanne Lenglen broke records for ticket sales and match winning streaks, scandalised and entranced the public with her playing outfits, and became a pioneer, making friends and enemies throughout restrictive tennis society in the trailblazing jazz age.
With stunning art and an astute eye, and featuring a foreword by founding co-secretary of the Women’s Tennis Association and International Tennis Hall of Fame member Françoise Dürr, Suzanne explores how a figure both enormously influential and too-often overlooked battled her father’s ambition, bias in sporting journalism, and her own divisive personality, to forge a new path – and to change sport forever.
Softcover, 104 pages, Full Colour
A beautiful coming of age tale, packed with adventure and magic with a backdrop that
outlines the importance of family.
Sennen’s life is mostly perfect – spending her days tending the fields in her idyllic village and her evenings with her beloved family, all tucked into the crook of a green and beautiful valley. If it wasn’t for the masked figures descending from the hills with increasing regularity to take their harvested food to deliver to their Gods, she’d have no worries at all.
But when the demands for tribute strike closer to home Sennen is forced to flee the paradise of her valley and venture into the home of the Gods to save her family and their way of life – only to discover that those we worship are not always what they seem and the lives we lead are not always so simplistic after all.
Sennen, the debut graphic novel from exciting new British author and artist Shanti Rai, tells a timeless tale of adventure and the discoveries we make as we explore beyond the boundaries of our childhood into the uncertainty of the adult world.
We have three events coming up next month: two signings with Tom Humberstone to launch Suzanne in London, and one in Edinburgh. At Gosh Comics in London, Tom will be doing a window illustration, so look out for that! At the Portobello Bookshop in Edinburgh, Tom will be in conversation about the book with tennis podcaster Claire Stanley. Come along and join us in celebrating this amazing book at one of the following:
