Patchwork

A bold reimagining of the life of a much-loved writer, from the author of RED ROSA and THREADS

A thing of beauty.

A fresh and vibrant reimagining of Austen's life, literally stitching her story into the wider tapestry of capitalism and colonialism. Kate Evans ties her well known talents for research and storytelling in with humour and heartbreak, reclaiming Austen from the dusty pages of history and rendering her with colour and energy. This stunning graphic biography is sure to draw new and diverse audiences into Austen's world and bring her story firmly into the 21st century. An impressive achievement!

A beautiful thing woven round a brilliant device, with snags to make you pause and think deeply, and maybe even cry as well as laugh.

A treasure trove of a book

I'm an Austen fan who loved Kate Evans's Red Rosa , so I'm basically the target audience here. Particularly, I'm excited to see how Austen's patchwork quilt is handled as a storytelling device, and what that means for the book's artwork, panel to panel. It's so cool when narrative and form meet.

Inspired by a quilt Austen made, [Kate Evans] pieces together the story of her life.The author's point is to situate Austen more firmly in lived reality; Evans' lively drawings similarly capture the past without prettifying it. A bracing corrective to the more simpering extremes of the Janeite universe.

This original and historically rich graphic biography uses a patchwork quilt as a framing device to pastiche together the story of Jane Austen's life. Evans employs an omniscient, storybook voice throughout, allowing readers to draw their own conclusions about the colorful cast of characters in Austen's life.Rich with creative liberties and historical detail.

Evan's fascinating graphic biography of Jane Austen. A work of extraordinary depth.The art is charming, with expressive characterizations and period-accurate renderings of clothing, carriages, and architecture. Patchwork is an inventive graphic biography of Jane Austen, putting her works into personal context.

This artful and thought-provoking graphic biography from Evans stitches a postcolonial layer into the narrative by examining the fabrics worn by Jane Austen and her contemporaries.Evans pointedly and beautifully illuminates the seams of this quilted narrative.

This energetic book, brimming with bright pages of illustration paired with often bounteous text, is premised on a piecing together - hence, the crafting metaphor of its title - of the threadbare record of its subject's short but productive life. The book will be highly satisfying to anyone craving more companionship with Jane Austen, both her life and her work.

NPR's Best Books of 2025

Jane Austen's life is given copious context in this lively graphic biography; it takes a broader view of her life and is far richer for it. Evans's storytelling mirrors Austen's conversational, comedic, and occasionally bitterly sad narrative style, while her nervy, detailed cartooning has an intentional antiquity about it, reflecting the staid yet tense atmosphere of Regency-Era England.

Kate Evans is a writer, cartoonist, illustrator and public speaker with thirty years' experience. Her previous books include the highly acclaimed Red Rosa and the Orwell Prize-longlisted Threads . Patchwork is her eighth work of graphic non-fiction.