The Inking Woman is a ground-breaking collection that celebrates the work and talent of over 150 women cartoonists and comic artists in Britain, from the eighteenth century to the present day.
Witty, insightful and defiant, with eyes firmly focused on the world around them, these women cartoonists are gathered together for the first time. From Mary Darly in the 1760s, the Suffragettes and Annie Harriet Fish in the First World War, to today’s new generation of cartoonists, they are here to be discovered, rediscovered, and, above all, to be enjoyed.
This wide-ranging curation of women’s comics work includes caricatures, joke, editorial and strip cartoons, on prints, postcards, comics, zines, graphic novels and digital comics, covering all genres and topics. Based on an exhibition of the same name, held at The Cartoon Museum in 2017, this book demonstrates that women have always had a wicked sense of humour and a perceptive view of the world.
This glorious collection of cartoon and comic art images not only salutes the women artists who made them but reclaims the archive for posterity and stakes its rightful place in art history.
Nicola Streeten lives in Lincoln. She is co-founder of Laydeez Do Comics and author of the graphic memoir Billy, Me & You (Myriad, 2011). Cath Tate lives in London and is founder of Cath Tate Cards, sponsor of the show and the book.
“An amazing collection! People will be unbelievably, delightedly thrilled. Like so much art, women have taken a back seat. Now they are at the forefront and I am so proud!” – Sandi Toksvig
“I can’t wait to get my hands on a finished copy.” – Caroline Sanderson, The Bookseller Non-Fiction Pick for March 2018.
“Women are often asked ‘Why are there no women … painters? brain surgeons?’ Fill in the blank! Scratch the surface and you will find outstanding examples. The answer for cartoonists is in this seriously funny collection.” – Diane Noomin
Interested in learning more about Newham Bookshop and some of the people connected with it? We have four lessons for classroom or family use developed from On the Record’s oral history project centered around Newham Bookshop, Writing and Reading Newham. Click here for full details.
We are proud that Newham Bookshop is LoveReading’s Bookshop of the Month. The article features a Q&A with Vivian Archer, which you can read here.