Astrid Goldsmith talks to Neill Cameron

Can humour help us understand our family histories? Stop-motion animator and writer Astrid Goldsmith talks to Donut Squad cartoonist Neill Cameron about family feuds, buried secrets and the unavoidable life admin after death, as explored in her debut graphic memoir, The Crystal Vase. Already an award-winning graphic storyteller, Goldsmith has an extraordinary talent for turning the heaviest moments in life into something funny, beautiful and bittersweet.

When her grandmother dies, it’s down to Goldsmith and her father to hire a van, drive to Germany and sort through her belongings. Family demands clash with a lifetime of clutter as they sort the heirlooms from the odds and ends, finding hidden histories and stories of survival among it all – from Nazi Germany to colonial Africa.