Alison: a stunning and emotional graphic novel for fans of Sally Rooney, from an award winning illustrator and author

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Two years in I realized that my life was no better or worse because of it. I think every girl wants better or worse, ideally better, I suppose. But sometimes worse can be so delicious, so enlivening that we’ll take it, simply to have something to do.”

Alison is Posy Simmonds meets Edward Bawden - and really, what higher praise could there be?' ObserverAlison discovers a talent for painting at Kerr’s class and begins sitting for him. Within months, she has left her husband for Kerr and Dorset for London. Here, the great man critiques her portraits and takes her to smug parties where she feels like the “most misplaced person” in the room. But, slowly, she finds her own friends and haunts. She buys oil paints, canvas and tinned food with her meagre earnings and explores the city, “screeching with laughter on the bus after a po-faced gallery opening” with her sculptor friend Tessa, while her work grows stronger and stronger. The book’s skewering of the art establishment is often very funny, but there’s fury here too Alison is newly married, barely twenty and struggling to find her place in the world. A chance encounter with an older artist upturns her life and she forsakes convention and her working-class Dorset roots for the thrumming art scene of London in the late seventies. Baby’s first graphic novel! And OMG why didn’t anyone tell me how much I was missing out, and that adding STUNNING artwork to a book doesn’t mean it’s any less of a story?! Consider me sold.

A quietly powerful book, and Stewart's well chosen and often witty dialogue goes straight to the heart. Her artwork is filmic and beautiful -- Isabel Greenberg, author of Glass Town

Summary

This book is a testament to the right to choose your own life' Jessica Andrews, author of Saltwater

This really had everything - if you think that cover is beautiful just wait until you open it up and see the amazing drawings etc inside. I loved the way the author added so many different styles, colours and even interspersed the art with letters at points. Praise for It's Not What You Thought It Would Be: 'This brilliant debut collection explores the intensity of teenage ennui and female friendship, with a deft feel for its slights and tensions -- Rachel Cooke * Guardian * Subtle and deliciously complicated, this is a big book on big subjects, but lightly, elegantly done. I loved it'Tessa Hadley, author of Free Love Her compassionate depictions of women alone, women together, will undoubtedly find welcoming audiences * Shelf Awareness * A captivating new graphic novel that could have been dreamt up by Edna O'Brien and Judith Kerr of The Tiger Who Came To Tea fame, had they ever collaborated. * The Gloss Ireland *But then also, if one creates a story about fictional artists and their lives, and while reading I’m more than once feel the urge to google if they are really just fictional, because it feels so convincing realistic and just real, one just wins for me, full score, 100/100 :) Every now and again a book comes along that is such a bright joy, so true, so beautiful and moving. Alison is one of those books. I loved it'Jessie Burton, author of The Miniaturist This book is a testament to the right to choose your own life. It is a tender, heartbreaking meditation on the bonds between women, the dazzle of the city, the struggle to become a female artist within the bounds of patriarchy, and the desire to make a mark on the world. It made me long for my friends; the dreams we have shared over the years and the ways in which they make the world feel possible. I want to give a copy to everyone I love. -- Jessica Andrews, author of Saltwater and Milk Teeth