Patchwork: A Graphic Biography of Jane Austen

by Kate Evans

Overview

A bold reimagining of the life of much-loved English Regency writer, Jane Austen, from the author of RED ROSA and THREADS

In her later years, Jane Austen made a patch­work quilt. She folded thousands of tiny scraps of fabric over diamond-shaped slips of paper and painstakingly stitched them together. Kate Evans employs these slivers of cloth to illustrate Jane Austen’s life story. Evans teases apart the threads that connect Austen’s beloved novels, the events of her life, and the fabric of society in Regency England.

Patchwork is a major new work of graphic biography. Kate Evans has an unparalleled ability to marry drama, comedy, and historically im­mersive detail, bringing Austen’s story to life with fluid, dynamic artwork, at times embroi­dered onto cloth itself. The author’s love for Austen shines throughout. Her incredible eye for historical detail – panes of glass, bits of lace, hedgelaying styles, the cut of a coat or the architecture of a Hampshire cottage – creates a captivating vision of Jane Austen’s world.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781804296226
Publisher:	Verso Books
Publication date:	10/28/2025
Pages:	208
Product dimensions:	8.30(w) x 10.90(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Kate Evans is a writer, cartoonist, illustrator and public speaker with thirty years’ experience. Patchwork is her eighth work of graphic non-fiction.

Editorial Reviews

"A thing of beauty."
—Mary Talbot, author of The Dotters of Her Father's Eyes

"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!"
—Karrie Fransman, author of Death of the Artist

"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."
—Martin Rowson, author of As I Please

"A treasure trove of a book"
—Lucy Adlington, creator of Bad Girls in Bonnets

"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."
—Lit Hub’s Most Anticipated Books of 2025

"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."
—Kirkus Reviews

"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."
—Booklist

"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."
—Foreword

"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."
—starred review, Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher

2025-08-15
Inspired by a quilt Austen made, a British cartoonist pieces together the story of her life.

“We are making diamonds [the shape of quilt patches],” writes Evans, “formed from the hard facts we know of Jane Austen’s life.” Unlike Janine Barchas and Isabel Greenberg’s graphic biography published earlier this year (The Novel Life of Jane Austen), Evans’ tougher-minded portrait emphasizes the trials and disappointments she endured. She was born in 1775 to parents who had “a superfluity of children, and a want of almost everything else,” writes Evans, making apt use of Jane’s own words here and throughout. Austen’s brothers got what few advantages there were, and Edward, the fortunate heir of wealthy relatives, did little to help until his wife died and he invited his mother and sisters to care for his 11 children in exchange for a home in…his bailiff’s cottage. Shrewd, engaging accounts of Jane’s creation of her famous novels—consistently rejected untilSense and Sensibility appeared in 1811, just six years before her death—underscore how much wit and pleasure she gave the world from such unpromising circumstances. Jane and sister Cassandra are frequently glimpsed doing needlework and making clothes, reminding us of women’s historic connection with fabrics and paving the way for an “Interlude” that connects the trade in muslin, chintz, linen, and cotton to the colonial exploitation of workers in India and Ireland and enslaved people in the American South, as well as factory workers in England. Jane’s brothers, Frank and Henry, as members of the armed forces, protected these practices, but Evans notes that Jane deplored slavery: “Did Mr Darcy build Pemberley without income from West Indian investments?” 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.

Kirkus Reviews