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Sophie & Scarlett Rickard and Myfanwy Tristram

Placards & Panels: Graphic Novels as Protest

Hay Festival 2026, 

Understanding the need for and art of protest has never been more important, as across the world people stand up against injustice. Graphic novelists Scarlett and Sophie Rickard and Myfanwy Tristram discuss writing about protest, the link between art and activism, and why the comic book is the perfect medium to discuss raising our voices against injustice.

This Slavery by the Rickards is adapted from a novel by radical author Ethel Carnie Holdsworth, who was the first working-class woman to have a novel published in Britain. It tells the story of sisters Rachel and Hester Martin, one of whom agitates for reform, while the other submits to the slavery of a patriarchal marriage. For Noisy Valley, Tristram visited the Rhondda Valley in South Wales, inviting people to recount their memories of the times they’d refused to take things lying down.

Sophie & Scarlett Rickard and Myfanwy Tristram