Lo! An Amazon! talk at the house of Doctor Samuel Johnson
Mary and Bryan Talbot will be giving a presentation of their forthcoming biography of Mary Wollstonecraft at Dr Johnson’s House in London on Thursday 17th September 2026.
Tickets, priced £27.50, include a welcome drink and a chance to view Dr Johnson’s House. Do note the rather splendid venue has limited capacity, so early booking is advised
As we’ve previously reported, Lo! An Amazon! The Interesting Narrative of The Life of Mary Wollstonecraft is the sixth collaborative graphic biography Talbot and illustrated by Bryan Talbot. Their first, Dotter of her Father’s Eyes, won the Costa Book Prize for Biography. It will be published by SelfMadeHero on the 1st October 2026 in the UK, and 3rd November in the United States
Over twenty years before her daughter, Mary Shelley, created the science fiction genre with Frankenstein, Mary Wollstonecraft’s 1792 manifesto, Vindication of the Rights of Woman, took the world by storm. Forthright and fearless, she mingled with other radical thinkers of her time and travelled widely. In the same year she published her magnum opus, she even ventured alone to Paris during the Reign of Terror.
In the Age of Revolutions, with many movements springing up to demand greater liberties for mankind, Mary Wollstonecraft spoke out for the other ‘one-half of the human race’: that of womankind.
Find out more about this graphic biography of the then-controversial and now-legendary Mary Wollstonecraft from Mary and Bryan Talbot, whose collaborations also include Sally Heathcote: Suffragette and Armed with Madness.
Lo! An Amazon! The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Mary Wollstonecraft with Mary and Bryan Talbot 6.30pm – 8.00pm (Doors open 6pm)| Thursday 17th September £27.50 | Book your tickets (limitedcapacity, early booking advised) here | Email: info@drjohnsonshouse.org info@drjohnsonshouse.org
• Lo! An Amazon! The Interesting Narrative of The Life of Mary Wollstonecraft by Mary M. Talbot and Bryan Talbot will be published by SelfMadeHero on the 1st October 2026 in the UK, and 3rd November in the United States | ISBN: 978-1914224492 | AmazonUK Affiliate Link | UKBookshop.org Affiliate Link
The Illuminators
Mary M. Talbot is an academic turned graphic novelist. Her first graphic novel, Dotter of her Father’s Eyes (with Bryan Talbot), won the 2012 Costa Biography Award. Her most recent, Rain (2019, with Bryan Talbot), is a rallying cry to protect the planet. Her previous graphic novels are Sally Heathcote, Suffragette (2014, with Kate Charlesworth and Bryan Talbot) and The Red Virgin (2016, with Bryan Talbot). Her most recent academic book is Language and Gender (3rd ed, 2019). She is currently Visiting Professor of Graphic Narrative at Lancaster University.
Multiple award-winning artist Bryan Talbot has been working in comics for over forty years. He’s produced underground, fantasy and superhero stories such as Batman and Sandman, and graphic novels including The Adventures of Luther Arkwright, The Tale of One Bad Rat, Alice in Sunderland, the Grandville series, (including, most recently, a prequel, The Casebook of Stamford Hawksmoor) as well as illustrating the books written by Mary. Bryan was awarded a Doctorate in Arts and another in Letters and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. In 2024, he was inducted into the prestigious Will Eisner Comic Industry Hall of Fame.
They are both founding patrons of The Lakes International Comic Art Festival.
An Extraordinary Venue
Dr Johnson’s House is a writer’s house museum in London, in the former home of the 18th-century English writer and lexicographer Samuel Johnson. The house is a Grade I listed building.
You may also be interested in their current exhibition, “Desks, Drudgery and the Dictionary: Samuel Johnson’s Garret Lexicography”, showcasing new aspects of Johnson’s garret lexicography, exploring why the garret was so important in Johnson’s move to Gough Square. The exhibition also explores how Johnson and his assistants worked on the Dictionary before it was published in 1755.
The star attraction of this exhibition is Johnson’s ‘dictionary desk’, currently at Pembroke College, Oxford, which will be returned to the garret for the first time since the dictionary was written here. This exhibition charts the journey of the desk of the past 250 years, and how the dictionary was compiled. Join us to explore the desk’s links to Charles Dickens, Thomas Carlyle, and Johnson’s lost godchildren.
Lo! An Amazon! The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Mary Wollstonecraft with Mary and Bryan Talbot 6.30pm – 8.00pm (Doors open 6pm)| Thursday 17th September £27.50 | Book your tickets (limitedcapacity, early booking advised) here | Email: info@drjohnsonshouse.org info@drjohnsonshouse.org
Accessibility: There is regrettably no step-free access to Dr Johnson’s House.There are seven steps to access the entrance (with a handrail). The building is a four-storey townhouse with a staircase between each floor. There are handrails on each side of the staircase and visitor seating in every room. Toilets are located down a steep set of stairs.
• Lo! An Amazon! The Interesting Narrative of The Life of Mary Wollstonecraft will be published by SelfMadeHero on the 1st October 2026 in the UK, and 3rd November in the United States | ISBN: 978-1914224492 | AmazonUK Affiliate Link | UKBookshop.org Affiliate Link
Head downthetubes for…
- Works by Mary Wollstonecraft in eBook form at Standard Ebooks
- Works by Mary Wollstonecraft at Project Gutenberg
- Works by or about Mary Wollstonecraft at the Internet Archive
- About the Author
- Latest Posts
John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who MagazineandOverkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.
He’s the writer of comics such as Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs”, with Dave Hailwood.
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