The Bodyguard Unit
Edith Garrud, Women's Suffrage, and Jujitsu
Age 13+
Comic Strip Fiction / Graphic Novels
A graphic exploration of a fascinating dimension in the battle for voting rights, with ongoing cultural relevance.
In the early 20th century, women in England were demanding the right to vote—and often faced violent retaliation. Rather than back down, suffragist group the Women's Social and Political Union formed an all-women security unit. Activist leader Emmeline Pankhurst asked Edith Garrud to train them. These "jujitsuffragettes" fought against abuse and arrest while pursuing long overdue rights.
Edith Garrud was a pioneering instructor of women's self-defense and a pivotal figure in British women’s suffrage. This graphic retelling of Garrud's life reveals the resilience and (sometimes physical) resistance of her era's voting-rights activists.
Creators
Clement Xavier is a writer based in France. In 2015, Xavier and illustrator Lisa Lugrin jointly received the prestigious Prix Révélation (Debut Prize) at the Angoulême International Comics Festival for their first French-language graphic novel, Yékini, le roi des arènes.
Award-winning translator Edward Gauvin specializes in contemporary comics. He is the translator of more than 425 graphic novels and a contributing editor for comics at Words Without Borders. His collaborations with Lerner have been honored by the American Library Association and the Eisner Awards. He lives in California with his wife and daughter.
Lisa Lugrin is a comic book artist and author based in France. In 2015, Lugrin and Clement Xavier jointly received the prestigious Prix Révélation (Debut Prize) at the Angoulême International Comics Festival. She is co-founder of Na editions.
Albertine Ralenti is graphic designer and colorist with over sixty comic books. She works with publishers on books, board games, role-playing games, and illustration, and organizes festivals around board games and comics. She is based in France.
Reviews
This engaging and informative graphic biography, which includes historical back matter, about an overlooked yet influential suffragist and martial artist deserves a spot in every graphic-novel collection.
starred, Booklist
In this high-energy work, Xavier highlights Edith Garrud (1872–1971), a self-taught British martial artist dedicated to educating women in how to protect themselves amid a fraught period in early 20th-century England. During the suffragist movement, activists often faced brutal retaliation such as beatings by police, violent mass arrests, and forced feeding when jailed. Believing self-defense to be an essential life skill and hoping to generate more business for their financially struggling dojo, Garrud and her husband William offered to train the members of Emmeline Pankhurst’s Women’s Social and Political Union in jujitsu. Employing retro superhero comics style and fluidly rendered, cartoony, mostly white characters, Lugrin breathes life into the pursuits of the self-named Bodyguard Unit. The kinetic narrative traces the 1910 formation of this little-known group, leading up to a climactic confrontation in the 1914 Battle of Glasgow. The overarching narrative and concluding resources gloss over jujitsu’s Japanese roots. By emphasizing Garrud’s pursuit to instruct women in how to turn their “opponent’s physical superiority against him,” the creators present an empowering work both in content and visuals, about the figure who taught women how to take back their power.
Publishers Weekly
