All hail @nationaltrust.org.uk making art and splendour available to all!
Here’s Petworth House - and if these glimpses don’t tempt you to visit I don’t know what would
Also PLEASE can someone tell me why that statue has a tiny tail?!
Thank you Andy for this lovely generous review of The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists!
As a child I saw going to work with Dad as an amazing adventure. Only now am I realising how stressful that must have been for him!
Our offspring are a teacher (two weeks off, well deserved) and hospitality worker (busier than ever, no extra pay). The contrast is stark
A panel from The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists graphic novel, in which the workers are asking the foreman if they might be allowed to work Good Friday and Easter Monday because they need the money. He says No.
Every Easter I bring out this image and say ‘We See You’ to all the zero-hours workers on a short week, and the ones working to serve those having a nice day off. Bank Holidays are great if you have the right kind of job. They can be miserable for everyone else
Oh yes To Walk Invisible is a big favourite of ours
A close up of a panel from This Slavery graphic novel showing plates in the rack, one of which has a crack in it
It’s details like this (using cracked dinner plates) that make the people in our graphic novels feel real and human. Just because they’re imaginary and over 100y ago doesn’t mean we can’t feel close to them
When you’re enjoying a wuthering walk in Yorkshire, there’s only one family saga that springs to mind …
Rob Yates standing in the street next to a VOTE GREEN sign (erected by Dad) outside a house with a lovely old Mercedes W123 hearse on the drive
A photo of the Green Party leaflet from Cliftonville ward, full of quotes from real people who live there. At the bottom it says VOTE GREEN TO STOP REFORM
Those of you following the further adventures of our activist Dad might enjoy these pictures of campaigning with @greenparty.org.uk candidate Rob Yates who hopes to join Kent County Council on 9th April, replacing a Reform councillor who’s enjoying an unplanned stay at his majesty’s pleasure
Yayyy! Wasn’t it an incredible number of people? There really are more of us than them, and it’s great to be together ☺️
Wahayyy! Isn’t it great how we are all connected and that gigantic number of people showed up to tell the fascists what-for!
Thank you for thinking of us when you saw the Bastards floating past ☺️
Dad and Catherine looking very cheerful in a beg crowd. Dad has white hair and a beard and sunglasses. He’s dressed in blue and carrying a furled EU flag. Catherine has curly dark hair and a big smile. She’s wrapped up warm with gloves and a hat, and a bright blue/green scarf. She’s holding a sign that says MAKE ART NOT WAR. Signs behind them say MAKE RACISM WRONG AGAIN and WE ARE STRONGER TOGETHER
A Dad’s eye view of the march: the backs of protesters walking forward filling the road, carrying signs like THERE’S NOWT BIG ABOUT BIGOTRY and DON’T LET THE BASTARDS GRIND YOU DOWN. The last one is available on our website, but if you like the others you’d have to ask Dad to make you one
A month ago, our Dad was campaigning for Hannah Spencer in Gorton & Denton
Yesterday, Dad and his friends went to the Together march against the far right in London. They said it was huuuuuge. Here he is with the protest signs he made:
Thank you! Give him a rummage round the ears from us
Sounds just like Jip! ❤️ do you think Billy would be happy for us to use his photo (esp the windy one) on Instagram?
Omg he does! Tell us more about Billy and how he snuck into the book!
Who’s the REAL main character of our graphic novel This Slavery?
Imagine being so annoyed that you wrote an influential book which made everyone else annoyed - that’s dedication
What’s it like working with your sister?
When you have a whole life time of ‘history’ with your colleague you know one another almost too well…
Thank you Chris for sharing this! We had a good old chat covering why and how we make these books, as well as the wider social aspects of art (including toilet paper 🧻)
Hey if you fancy a walk but you can’t get out, read this from @traveloguer.bsky.social
It has the added charm of smashing industrial capitalism to bits along the way, and a photo that <so nearly> includes our childhood home
www.theguardian.com/travel/2026/...
We spoke to Alex at Cartoon County in Brighton all about the making of This Slavery graphic novel - and now that chat has become a podcast! Listen by clicking through here 👇
Wasn’t it an amazing day? Just to meet and chat with so many people who love Ethel Carnie Holdsworth was so great, never mind all the art and song!
Here’s a glimpse of the day This Slavery brought a crowd to Queen Street Mill in Burnley and filled it with art and song and resistance ✊
@commonerschoir.bsky.social @jenniferballads.bsky.social @jennyharper.bsky.social @selfmadehero.bsky.social
Thanks to Huckleberry Films
This is the stage between the script and the art of a graphic novel - and although we tend to do it quickly, some of the most important decisions get made at this point. Where the page turns fall, what we’re looking at when people deliver key lines, small panels or whole pages etc etc etc
Cup of Tea?
That is an incredibly satisfying image 👏📚
Ooooh great title! Thank you
I don’t think I saw that, I’ll look out for it!
John Everet Millais’ painting of Ophelia from the national gallery for which Elizabeth Siddal posed in a cold bath 😔
Perhaps it would have been better if I’d read it at that age - even the soap opera that was the Morris/Rossetti/Millais set seems less romantic (borderline abusive) now I’m a grumpy old woman. I can’t look at Ophelia now without thinking of Siddal catching her death
Here’s a story about an 18th-century woman that caught my imagination. There are scant details but her strong personality really comes through. I wish we knew more about her.
1/10
It’s one of the few books I have read that made me *really cross*
It seemed to be a utopian vision for wealthy white men, wherein women and manual workers just exist to serve them with a bizarre fetishistic enthusiasm - I have to admit not reading to the end!
