Kate Charlesworth

Kate Charlesworth (born 1950) is a British cartoonist and artist who has produced comics and illustrations since the 1970s. Her work has appeared in LGBT publications such as

In 2015, her graphic novel Sally Heathcote: Suffragette (with Mary and Bryan Talbot) was included in a list published by The Guardian of the "top 10 books about revolutionaries".^[2] Sensible Footwear: A Girl’s Guide, her autobiography and history of gay and lesbian culture in England and Scotland from the end of World War II to the present, was published in 2018.^[3]

Early life

Charlesworth was born in

Charlesworth is an only child.^[4]

Career

Charlesworth's career in comics began in 1973, when she pitched a daily strip called "Twice Nightly" with two gay characters and suffragette themes to the Manchester Evening News.

She has produced science comics for New Scientist ("Life, the Universe and (Almost) Everything") and The Independent, as well as illustrations for several books published by the National Museums of Scotland.^[9]

She describes her art style as not overly cartoonish or caricature, but emotionally realistic. In an interview she stated that she uses photographic reference and tries to get in the mind of each character to accurately portray their emotions on the page.^[10]

More recently, Charlesworth has shifted to working on graphic novels. She illustrated Sally Heathcote: Suffragette by Mary Talbot, published in 2014. Her illustrations were highly praised by Neel Mukherjee in The Guardian as "beautifully executed in black-and-white, with perfectly judged touches of colour."^[11] In 2011 she contributed to Blank Slate’s Nelson, a collaborative graphic novel with 54 British comic artists.^[12] Nelson was chosen as The Guardian's graphic novel of the month by Rachel Cooke and one of 2011's best graphic novels by The Times.^[13][14] Charlesworth spent four years working on her autobiographical work Sensible Footwear: A Girl's Guide, which was published in 2019.^[10]

Charlesworth has also worked as a storyboard artist for shows including

Her future plans include a joint comic project with her partner, Dianne, as well as moving into different mediums, including animation.[10]

Personal life

Charlesworth is a lesbian and has stated that she embraced her identity as a dyke in college when she entered a relationship. She has opined that she feels the lesbian community of the time heavily self-policed behavior and look, which prevented her from fully realizing her identity and influenced much of her work.^[10][4]

Charlesworth has been politically active in British and Scottish politics and pushes for equal rights. When Clause 28 of the Local Government Act was being pushed in 1988, aiming to ban the promotion of and education about homosexuality by local authorities, including schools, Charlesworth teamed up with Viv Quillin, Cath Jackson, and Cath Tate, three other local cartoonists, to produce a series of postcards to campaign against it.^[20] More recently, she has notably been outspoken against Brexit and President Trump, arguing that their popularity represent a backslide for LGBT rights.^[23]

She has also been involved in many efforts to increase awareness of LGBT history.^[10] In 2006 she illustrated a guide for a walking tour of 500 years of Edinburgh’s LGBT history, published by the LGBT Centre for Health and Wellbeing and Remember When.^[24] In the same year she participated in the City of Edinburgh Council's "Rainbow City" exhibition at the City Art Centre.^[6][25] She also participates in Edinburgh's Loud and Proud choir, which sang at Equal Marriage lobbies of the Scottish Parliament.^[6]

She currently lives with Dianne, her partner of 13 years, a dog, and a cat in the Borders in Scotland.^[4]

Awards and honors

• Her work was included along that of Howard Cruse, Groc, Kath Jackson, and David Shenton in the 1990s in an exhibition at the Basement Gallery in London in association with Krazy Kat Theatre Company.^[26]
• Charlesworth and David Shenton had an exhibition of 50 queer-themed cartoons called "Sh(OUT): Contemporary art and Human Rights," developed with OurStory Scotland, at the Glasgow Gallery of Modern Art in 2009.^[7][27][28]
• In 2015 Sally Heathcote: Suffragette was included in a list published by The Guardian of the "top 10 books about revolutionaries".^[11]
• Charlesworth was included among 100 British women cartoonists in "The Inking Woman" exhibition at the Cartoon Museum in 2017.^[20]
• In 2019 an exhibition of Charlesworth's art from Sensible Footwear: A Girl's Guide was held by the United Kingdom European Commission at Europe House.^[29][30]
• Her work was acquired by Glasgow Museum for their fine arts collection in 2019.^[31]
• Charlesworth held a pop-up display at the Cartoon Museum to coincide with the release of her new book in 2019.^[32]
• Sensible Footwear: A Girl's Guide appeared on the 2019
  Portico Prize Longlist.^[33]

• Sensible Footwear: A Girl’s Guide (
  ISBN 9780993563348
  • Autobiography detailing Charlesworth's realization of her sexuality, her complicated relationship with her parents, and her political fight against oppression like the legislative section 28. Also a social history of British LGBT identity, experiences, and prejudices from the post-war period to the present day.
• ISBN 9781616555474
  • Follows a fictional suffragette, Sally Heathcote, through the British fight for women's suffrage as she encounters famous figures like Emmeline Pankhurst and becomes more involved in the movement, including being arrested and force-fed.
• Mary Anning: A Souvenir (Lyme Regis, 1999)^[34]
  • Produced by Charlesworth for the Lyme Regis Museum's 1999 exhibition on Mary Anning.
• The Cartoon History of Time (with
  ISBN 9780486490977
• All That...: The Other Half of History (with Marsaili Cameron; Pandora, 1986),
  ISBN 9780863580673
  • Mostly visual satirical history textbook placing women at its center.
• Exotic Species: A Field Guide to Some of Our British Gays (GMP, 1984),
  ISBN 9780907040385