Autumn 2024 Releases From Avery Hill Publishing

One of my favourite UK publishers, Avery Hill Publishing, announces two books to look out for in Autumn 2024:

 

A mark of a damn fine publisher to me is that you soon come to look at each and every one of their releases and think to yourself immediately that you have to check the book out simply because that publisher have taken the decision to publish it.

Avery Hill Publishing attained that level with me very, very quickly from the outset of their publishing journey and haven’t let me down since then. Sure, a couple of their books haven’t been particularly to my taste but on the whole I love everything they’ve published and even those that didn’t quite hook me were still books that I could see the quality and appeal of.

So, every time Avery Hill send out an email trailing their new books, I’ll sit up and take note and invariably do something like this to give you advance notice of the books, to put them on your radar.

Anyway, there are two new books for Autumn 2024 from Avery Hill that both look like they’re both right up my street and books that you should be looking forward to – Adrift on a Painted Sea by Tim Bird and The Scrapbook of Life and Death by J. Webster Sharp.

Here’s what Avery Hill co-publisher and commissioning editor Ricky Miller says about the books –

‘I’m delighted to present Avery Hill’s new titles for the autumn season. We’re continuing our tradition of both discovering new talent and giving long-term support for creators’ careers this fall with an extraordinary debut graphic novel from J. Webster Sharp and a stand-out new autobiographical story from Tim Bird, the first author Avery Hill ever published. Tim Bird is a fixture in the Avery Hill family. We’ve been publishing his work since the days when we were photocopying and hand-stapling our own zines, and it’s been one of our greatest pleasures as a publisher to see him grow as an artist. His new graphic novel is his most personal, engaging book yet.’

‘Avery Hill has made our reputation discovering amazing new authors like Tillie Walden, Zoe Thorogood, and George Wyesol—each one a creator with a distinctive, memorable voice and style. We’re excited to add J. Webster Sharp to that list. After making a name for herself publishing shorter works in anthologies like NOW, she’s bringing her peculiar, eccentric, and deeply personal sensibility to a graphic novel that explores the strangeness of the human psyche.’

 

Now, I’ve told you before of my love for Tim Bird’s work – here with The Great North Wood I said this:

‘As Tim Bird‘s longest comic to date, The Great North Wood, tells you, there was once a huge part of South London covered in green, that’s only really remembered today in the names of the areas covering what was the Great North Wood, a few patches of ancient green amongst the suburban contamination. And here, with a lyrical, poetic journey of rather beautiful and engaging psychogeography, Bird takes us through time and space, as he uncovers the history of London. Simple, yet thought-provoking.’

So Adrift on a Painted Sea is definitely one for me. As for J. Webster Sharp and The Scrapbook of Life and Death, well just from the fact that Avery Hill are behind this plus the description and few bits below, I’m saying yes to that one as well!

More on both of these nearer the time – for now, make a note for their releases…

 

Adrift on a Painted Sea – by Tim Bird
Published on 1 October 2024, 84 pages, softcover with french flaps, full colour throughout.

A poignant, thoughtful graphic memoir that explores family, loss, and art through the author’s relationship with his mother, who painted as a hobby throughout her life.

Sue Bird was always painting: botanical art, landscapes, still lifes, and especially the sea. She took classes, kept countless sketchbooks, and filled the house with art. From their neighbourhood to their family trips, all the moments of her life were memorialised in her artwork. Throughout her life, she never sold a piece—she gave art to family and friends, and shared her work online, but never received wider recognition for her work.

This graphic novel by her son, Tim Bird, explores their family life and her creative explorations through a mix of her paintings and Tim’s comics, depicting their relationship and her life from teenagehood to her struggle with cancer at the height of the covid pandemic. After her death, this graphic novel at last showcases her work.

At its heart a book about creativity and family relationships, Adrift on a Painted Sea tells a story about the things we overlook in the people closest to us.

 

 

The Scrapbook of Life and Death – by J. Webster Sharp
Published on 3 September 2024, 88 pages, paperback, black and white.

The monstrosity of life explored through the strangeness of Edwardian England and the cartoonist’s own mental illness.

‘Dentist Robs Women of Teeth’, ‘Death Chair for Nice Old Man’, ‘Mother Feeds Son Like Bird’

The British newspaper clipping collection of egalitarian George Ives, collected between 1892 and 1949, ranged from murder and theories of crime to cricket scores. He was fascinated by the unusual, the gothic, the sexual, and the melodramatic.

In this graphic novel, acclaimed cartoonist J. Webster Sharp shares some of the most bizarre stories from his archives in silent comics form. With often shocking, visceral black and white artwork, the strangeness and eccentricity of the Edwardian era provides a backdrop for Sharp’s own struggles with mental health.

The Scrapbook of Life and Death is a fascinating, personal window into forgotten historical views of eccentric and socially transcendent and disturbing behaviours—and their resonance in life today.