Joff Winterhart talks to Patrick Gale

Graphic novelist Joff Winterhart talks about his new book, Dear Historian, a comic story of two women navigating a generational age gap, loss, celebrity historians and bad knees.

Septuagenarian Margaret is very particular about what she likes and that is mostly her lifelong study of the obscure 17th-century polymath J.W Preece. She meets young history producer Lucy and they form a tentative bond. Lucy is heartbroken and unsure of herself but finds new inspiration as she is drawn into Margaret’s passions.

‘Just when I thought I couldn’t love Joff Winterhart more, along came Dear Historian. It has all the wry humanity and keen eye for detail that won Driving Short Distances and Days of the Bagnold Summer such passionate fans’ Patrick Gale

Winterhart is an artist, writer and occasional filmmaker. His novel Days of the Bagnold Summer was the first graphic novel to be shortlisted for the Costa Novel Award in 2012 and was adapted into a film. He also made the animated films Two Guys I Know and Violet and Turquoise, winner of the Cymru BAFTA for best animation. Here he talks to novelist Patrick Gale, author of A Perfectly Good Man and Love Lane, about which he speaks at another festival event.