{"id":9026,"date":"2019-12-12T09:47:16","date_gmt":"2019-12-12T09:47:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev.adambowie.com\/?p=9026"},"modified":"2019-12-12T09:47:17","modified_gmt":"2019-12-12T09:47:17","slug":"cassandra-darke-by-posy-simmonds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dev.adambowie.com\/blog\/2019\/12\/cassandra-darke-by-posy-simmonds\/","title":{"rendered":"Cassandra Darke by Posy Simmonds"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I’ve had a copy of Cassandra Darke<\/a><\/em> sitting around for about a year, without having really picked it up to read until now, and there’s absolutely no reason for this. It’s great.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Posy Simmonds is the author of a series of literary themed graphic novels with perhaps Tamara Drewe<\/em> (a retelling of Far From the Madding Crowd<\/em>) and Gemma Bovary <\/em>(based on Madame Bovary<\/em>) being her better known works. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cassandra is a very priviliged woman. She runs her late husbands gallery, selling works including sculptures to a discerning clientele. But she is not a nice woman, treating those around her with disdain. She lives in magnificent house in a nice Chelsea square, and has another home in France. She also manages to sustain three staff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Against her better judgement, she lets her step-sister’s daughter Nicki – her late husband had long ago left her to marry her close friend – stay in the downstairs flat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story shifts narratives from Cassandra to Nicki at times. But Cassandra is at the heart of the piece, and early on we discover that she has a big secret, and not everything in the gallery that she runs is at it seems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile a new relationship that Nicki has begun sees some very unpleasant characters enter their lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story is told sparsely, and I couldn’t help thinking of Cassandra as a Scrooge-like character – a reasonable proportion of the story is set in December. She looks down on most people – muttering asides to homeless people on the street, and sometimes treating her staff with disdain. A young assistant in her gallery can no longer work with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Simmonds’ illustrations are superb, driving the story, and having delightful asides. She draws her protagonist as a squat character – reminding me to some extent of cartoonist Giles’ grandma. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You’re never entirely sure where the story is going, since the first thing we read is a newspaper clipping reporting the discovery of a woman’s body in some woods, while the story is told largely in flashback.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An excellent read.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve had a copy of Cassandra Darke sitting around for about a year, without having really picked it up to read until now, and there’s absolutely no reason for this. It’s great. Posy Simmonds is the author of a series of literary themed graphic novels with perhaps Tamara Drewe (a retelling of Far From the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9027,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[108],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.adambowie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9026"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.adambowie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.adambowie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.adambowie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.adambowie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9026"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dev.adambowie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9026\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9028,"href":"https:\/\/dev.adambowie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9026\/revisions\/9028"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.adambowie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9027"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.adambowie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9026"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.adambowie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9026"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.adambowie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}