SelfMadeHero, the UK’s leading independent graphic novel publisher, is delighted to announce the publication of the graphic adaptation of The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists on 25th September.
Authors: Scarlett and Sophie Rickard Adapted from novel by Robert Tressell
Adapted from Robert Tressell’s 1914 socialist novel about English working-class life, this compelling picture of socio-economic life in early 20th-century Britain remains acutely relevant today. This faithful, fully researched, and beautiful full colour adaptation of Tressell’s enduring novel relates the journey to political enlightenment of its hero, the journeyman housepainter Frank Owen, and his persuasive conviction that capitalism is the true source of the poverty that he and his fellow workers are forced to endure. Scarlett and Sophie Rickard’s graphic adaptation is a work of art about work.
“An honest book and valuable above all for the exactness of its observation […] It is a book that everyone should read.”– GEORGE ORWELL
An inspiration to generations of political thinkers, from George Orwell to Tony Benn, Robert Tressell’s The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists – perhaps thesocialist novel – here finds its perfect medium. Scarlett and Sophie Rickard’s graphic novel of this timeless and compelling masterpiece embodies the hard graft, devoted craft, and sheer beauty of dedicated labour – and exposes the ugliness of its scandalous neglect by an all too complacent society.
Originally published in 1914, Robert Tressell’s The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists traces the political awakening of Frank Owen, and the team of painter-decorators with whom he works, and whose stories are intertwined with his. Exploited by profiteering employers, abandoned by a hypocritical church, and oppressed by corrupt politicians, Owen confronts head-on the greed and dishonesty of the capitalist system. As profoundly relevant as it is today, however, this is no dry political tract. Instead, the 350 full-colourpages of Scarlett and Sophie Rickard’s sumptuous adaptation celebrate the joys of fellowship and creative endeavour as beautifully as they convey the ugliness of its exploitation.
Orwell called Tressell’s novel “a book that everyone should read”; the Rickards’s adaptation is a work of art that everyone should see.
The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists
Words by Sophie Rickard • Art by Scarlett Rickard
Gently edited by David Hine
Release: 25 September 2020 • ISBN: 978-1-910593-92-9
RRP £14.99 • 352pp Paperback • Full Colour
About the author / artist
Scarlett and Sophie Rickard are graphic novelists originally from the Ribble Valley in Lancashire. Scarlett, now living in Kent, is a graphic artist, illustrator, drummer and junk collector. She has been drawing since she was very small and works closely with her sister Sophie on graphic novels. Sophie, now livingin Chesire, is a writer and child counsellor. She writes graphic novels with her sister Scarlett. This is their second graphic novel.
