Suzanne – The Jazz Age Goddess of Tennis
Tom Humberstone
Out 01/09/2022 (UK) – 08/09/2022 (North America) – Avery Hill Press
208 pages, softcover, full colour throughout, 168 x 239mm
The incredible story of Suzanne Lenglen, a woman who changed the face of sport and society in the trailblazing Jazz Age, but who few even remember.
One of the greatest tennis players the world has ever seen was a woman few even remember. A championship player by the age of fifteen in a Europe overshadowed by impending war, Suzanne Lenglen broke records for ticket sales and match winning streaks, scandalised and entranced the public with her playing outfits, and became a pioneer, making friends and enemies throughout restrictive tennis society in the trailblazing Jazz Age.
With stunning art and an astute eye, Suzanne explores how a figure both enormously influential and too-often overlooked battled her father’s ambition, bias in sporting journalism, and her own divisive personality, to forge a new path — and to change sport forever.
Tom Humberstone is an award-winning comic artist and illustrator based in Edinburgh. His work has appeared in Phonogram (Image), Doctor Who (Titan) and the Eisner award-nominated Nelson (Blank Slate). He writes and draws non-fiction comics for the Ignatz award-winning The Nib, as well as the New Statesman, Vox, Buzzfeed and others.
