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British cartoonist, writer and illustrator

Rosemary Elizabeth "Posy" SimmondsMBE, FRSL (born 9 August ) is a British newspaper cartoonist, and writer and illustrator of both children's books and graphic novels. She is best known for her long association with The Guardian, for which she drew the series Gemma Bovery () and Tamara Drewe (–06), both later published as books.^[1] Her style gently satirises the English middle classes and in particular those of a literary bent.

Both Gemma Bovery and Tamara Drew feature a "doomed heroine", much in the style of the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century gothic romantic novel, to which they often allude, but with an ironic, modernist slant.

Early life

Posy Simmonds was born in Berkshire on 9 August , the daughter of Reginald A.

C. Simmonds and Betty Cahusac.^[2] Her brother is the Conservative politician Richard Simmonds.

Posy simmonds biography books in order She is best known for her long association with The Guardian , for which she drew the series Gemma Bovery and Tamara Drewe —06 , both later published as books. Both Gemma Bovery and Tamara Drew feature a "doomed heroine", much in the style of the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century gothic romantic novel , to which they often allude, but with an ironic, modernist slant. Simmonds and Betty Cahusac. She was educated at Queen Anne's School , Caversham. Simmonds started her newspaper career drawing a daily cartoon, "Bear", for The Sun in

She was educated at Queen Anne's School, Caversham. She studied at the Sorbonne before returning to London to attend Central School of Art & Design, where she received a BA in Art and Design.^[2][3] In , she married Richard Graham Hollis.^[2]

Career

Simmonds started her newspaper career drawing a daily cartoon, "Bear", for The Sun in She contributed humorous illustrations to The Times from to She also contributed to Cosmopolitan, and a satirical cartoon to Tariq Ali's Black Dwarf magazine.

She moved to The Guardian as an illustrator in

In May she started drawing a weekly comic strip for The Guardian, initially titled The Silent Three of St Botolph's as a tribute to the s strip The Silent Three by Evelyn Flinders. It began as a silly parody of girls' adventure stories making satirical comments about contemporary life.

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Posy simmonds biography books list

Biography books list

The strip soon focused on three s schoolfriends in their later, middle-class and nearly middle-aged lives: Wendy Weber, a former nurse married to polytechnic sociology lecturer George with a large brood of children; Jo Heep, married to whisky salesman Edmund with two rebellious teenagers; and Trish Wright, married to philandering advertising executive Stanhope and with a young baby.

The strip, which was latterly untitled and usually known just as "Posy", ran until the late s. It was collected into a number of books: Mrs Weber's Diary, Pick of Posy, Very Posy and Pure Posy, and one original book featuring the same characters, True Love. Her later cartoons for The Guardian and The Spectator were collected as Mustn't Grumble in

In , Simmonds was named Cartoonist of the Year^[4] in the British Press Awards.^[5] In and she contributed a regular full-page strip to Harper's Magazine in America.

In Simmonds turned her hand to writing, as well as illustrating, children's books.

Biography books free: Rosemary Elizabeth "Posy" Simmonds MBE, FRSL (born 9 August ) is a British newspaper cartoonist, and writer and illustrator of both children's books and graphic novels. She is best known for her long association with The Guardian, for which she drew the series Gemma Bovery () and Tamara Drewe (–06), both later published as books. [1].

Fred, the story of a cat with a secret life, was later filmed as Famous Fred and nominated for the Academy Award for Animated Short Film and several BAFTAs. Her other children's books include Lulu and the Flying Babies, The Chocolate Wedding and Lavender.

In the late s Simmonds returned to the pages of The Guardian with Gemma Bovery, which reworked the story of Gustave Flaubert's Madame Bovary into a satirical tale of English expatriates in France.

It was published as a graphic novel in and was made into a feature film of the same name (Gemma Bovery), directed by Anne Fontaine, in , and starring Gemma Arterton.^[6] The Literary Life series of cartoons appeared in The Guardian's "Review" section on Saturdays from November until December , and was published in book form in (Literary Life) and, in an expanded version, in (Literary Life Revisited).

Simmond's Guardian series, Tamara Drewe, which echoes Thomas Hardy's novel Far From the Madding Crowd, made its début in the Review section on 17 September , in the first Saturday paper after the Guardian's relaunch in the Berliner format. It ended, with episode and an epilogue, on 2 December and was published as a book in In the story was adapted as a feature film of the same name, directed by Stephen Frears from a screenplay by Moira Buffini, again starring Gemma Arterton.^[7]

Simmonds' third, critically acclaimed graphic novel, Cassandra Darke, was published in ^[8][9][10] It is loosely based on Charles Dickens' novella A Christmas Carol; although the story unfolds in , its eponymous protagonist is in some respects a female version of Ebenezer Scrooge, and also undergoes a profound (though more subtle and ambiguous) moral transformation.

Posy simmonds biography books Skip to Content The Penguin Podcast is back! Listen Now Home Posy Simmonds. Books Biography. Posy Simmonds Mrs Weber's Omnibus. Select a format: Ebook.

Simmonds drew the illustrations for the opening titles of the BBC's production of Elizabeth Gaskell's Cranford, and for Midsummer Nights, a volume of opera-related short stories by prominent writers published in to mark the 75th anniversary of the Glyndebourne Opera Festival. She was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire in for services to the newspaper industry.^[11] After being nominated already in for Gemma Bovery, Simmonds won the Prix de la critique of the French Association of comics critics and journalists for Tamara Drewe.^[12] In she was awarded the Grand Prix Töpffer (named after Rodolphe Töpffer, the author of the earliest comic strips) by the city of Geneva, Switzerland.^[13][14] In she was awarded the Grand Prix de la ville d'Angoulême, being the first British cartoonist to do so.^[15]

Selected bibliography

• The Posy Simmonds Bear Book ()
• Bear ()
• More Bear ()
• Mrs Weber's Diary ()
• True Love ()
• Pick of Posy ()
• Very Posy ()
• Pure Posy ()
• Mustn't Grumble ()
• Gemma Bovery ()
• Literary Life ()
• Tamara Drewe ()^[16]
• Cassandra Darke ()

Children's books

• Fred ()
• Lulu and the Flying Babies ()
• The Chocolate Wedding ()
• Matilda: Who Told Lies and Was Burned To Death ()
• Bouncing Buffalo ()
• F-Freezing ABC ()
• Cautionary Tales And Other Verses ()
• Mr Frost (, in Little Litt #2)
• Lavender ()
• Baker Cat ()

Television/film scripts

• The Frog Prince ()
• Tresoddit for Easter ()
• Famous Fred ()

References

External links