Episode 144 – Posy Simmonds

Virtual Memories Show #144:
Posy Simmonds

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“I always get asked, ‘Could you draw properly if you want to?’ Also, ‘Who writes your jokes?’ Oh, and, ‘Have you ever thought of doing something serious?'”

UK cartooning legend Posy Simmonds, MBE, author of Gemma Bovery and Tamara Drewe, joins the show for a charming conversation about her career as a “literary” cartoonist, her childhood in postwar Britain, where she was raised on American comics and Americana, the allure of London, her top methods of procrastination, why her characters occasionally get trampled by livestock, what the French word is for comics with too many word balloons, and more! Give it a listen!

“The eternal thing in Madame Bovary is what the French call ‘bovarisme’, being very dissatisfied with your lot, and wanting to change it. We see it all the time: ‘If I get a new nose or new tits, I’ll be someone different!'”

We also talk about seeing her work turned into movies, her regret at not being able to attend San Diego Comic-Con the years she was an invited guest (!), the challenges of transporting Madame Bovary into modern-day France, working in serial format in The Guardian where she drew “giraffe comics”, and more, so go listen!

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We talk about some books and comics in this episode. Here’s a list of them:

• Tamara Drewe – Posy Simmonds
• Gemma Bovery – Posy Simmonds
• True Love – Posy Simmonds
• Madame Bovary – Gustave Flaubert
• Far from the Madding Crowd – Thomas Hardy
• Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic – Alison Bechdel
• Ethel and Ernest: A True Story – Raymond Briggs
• Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens
• Rabbit, Run – John Updike
• The Centaur – John Updike

Enjoy the conversation! Then check out the archives for more great episodes! You might like:

• Jennifer Hadyen & Summer Pierre
• Clive James
• Roz Chast
• Lorenzo Mattotti
• Merill Markoe

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About our Guest

Posy Simmonds was born in 1945 and brought up near Cookham in Berkshire, England. She studied French (briefly) at The Sorbonne and graphic design at Central St Martins, London. While trying to find work as a cartoonist, she was a dog-walker, a cleaner, a governess, and sold Pyrex in Harrods. Her first commission was in The Times in 1968 – 5 tiny illustrations about loft insulation.

She is best known for the strip cartoons and serials that were published in The Guardian and the books that derive from them. These include Mrs Weber’s Diary, True Love, Literary Life and the graphic novels, Gemma Bovery and Tamara Drewe. Tamara Drewe was an Essentiel d’Angoulême in 2008, and won the Prix Des Critiques. Both novels have been made into feature films: Tamara Drewe, directed by Stephen Frears in 2010 and Gemma Bovery, directed by Anne Fontaine in 2014.

Posy has also written and drawn several books for children which include Baker Cat, and Fred, whose film version was nominated for an Oscar in 1996. Her work has been shown in exhibitions organised by the Arts Council and British Council, and in 2012 she had a retrospective exhibition at the Belgian Comic Strip Centre in Brussels. She is married and lives in London and is currently working on another novel.

Credits: This episode’s music is Nothing’s Gonna Bring Me Down by David Baerwald, used with permission of the artist. The conversation was recorded at Ms. Simmonds’ home on a pair of Blue enCORE 200 microphones feeding into a Zoom H5 digital recorder. I recorded the intro and outro on a Blue Yeti USB Microphone. Processing was done in Audacity and Logic Pro. Photos of Ms. Simmonds by me.