Patchwork

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.