Author and illustrator Edward Carey presents a paean to connection at a time of isolation: a year of daily lockdown drawings posted on social media from his home in Texas.

There is so much sharp grace and so much generosity in Carey's art; I loved this book, for its beauty, and for its tenacity of heart.’ – Katherine Rundell

 

‘Once again Edward Carey has produced a remarkable book, this time blend of words and drawings about both outrage and consolation. Noted mask wearers, shut-ins and plague witnesses rub shoulders with monsters mythical and all too real. Those house arrested days when we mourned together, feared together, loved together as planet are recorded. Birds and writers gather. Injustices howl and graves multiply. And still human beings add beauty to reality – and hope. As Carey writes ‘’There’s magic in the ordinary.’’ The best of us uncover it and pass it on. This book contains magic.’ – A.L. Kennedy 

 

‘Edward Carey probably didn't know what he was getting himself into when he committed to tweeting a daily lockdown drawing, but the results are the best thing by far to come out of a horrible year. Whether a startled moggy or a panda-eyed Hamlet, each drawing is stamped with Carey's unique style and off-kilter sensibility. B: A YEAR IN PLAGUES AND PENCILS is a constant delight.’ – Graeme Macrae Burnet

 

‘These characterful images are bound together here with words of wistfulness and modest hope.’ – Hephzibah Anderson, The Observer

Praise for Edward Carey

‘Startlingly original’ The Times

‘Don’t miss this eccentric charmer’ @MargaretAtwood

‘A playful writer whose charming sentences are works of careful craftsmanship’ Washington Post

‘Inspired’ New York Times

‘[The Swallowed Man is] a marvellous feat of storytelling that dives deep into the madness accompanying solitude and creativity’ Daily Mail

‘Haunting … beautiful … [The Swallowed Man] offers much in which to luxuriate’ Sunday Times