[]
Dear Historian
  • Published: 17 March 2026
  • ISBN: 9781787332669
  • Imprint: Jonathan Cape
  • Format: Hardback
  • Pages: 192
  • RRP: $55.00
Categories:

Dear Historian

Formats & editions
Hardback
17 Mar 2026
EBook
12 Mar 2026
Buy from…
Book Hero BookHub Mighty Ape Paper Plus The Nile The Warehouse Whitcoulls Unity Books Find Local Retailers

Improbable friends Margaret and Lucy navigate their age gap, the cult of personality, graveyards in the rain and bad knees: from cult graphic novelist Joff Winterhart

'One of the most talented graphic novelists in the UK' ZADIE SMITH

'Exquisitely observed and utterly brilliant' INDIA KNIGHT, Sunday Times

'An unmitigated delight' OBSERVER *Graphic Novel of the Month*

Improbable friends Margaret and Lucy navigate their age gap, the cult of personality, graveyards and bad knees: from cult-favourite graphic novelist Joff Winterhart

At this point in her life, septuagenarian Margaret is particular about the things she likes. These include looking out of train windows, graveyards in the rain, an afternoon sherry. But most of all, it is her lifelong subject, the obscure 17th century polymath J.W Preece, who she has devoted her life to studying.

Margaret doesn’t like: drawing attention to herself, extravagant behaviour and television.

When she meets a young history TV producer, Lucy, they form a tentative bond, despite Margaret’s reluctance to be drawn into the media world. Several decades Margaret’s junior, heartbroken and unsure of herself, Lucy finds curious new inspiration as she falls under the spell of Margaret’s passions.

With inimitable sensitivity and humour, cult-favourite graphic novelist Joff Winterhart returns with an irresistible portrait of two women navigating their age gap, loss, self-made-celebrity-historians, and bad knees…

'Just when I thought I couldn’t love Joff Winterhart more, along came Dear Historian. It has all the wry humanity and keen eye for detail that won Driving Short Distances and Days of the Bagnold Summer such passionate fans' PATRICK GALE

'Even in the prose aisles, you'd be hard-pressed to find a piece of literary fiction as nuanced and beautiful as this.' VULTURE, on Other People
  • Published: 17 March 2026
  • ISBN: 9781787332669
  • Imprint: Jonathan Cape
  • Format: Hardback
  • Pages: 192
  • RRP: $55.00
Categories:

About the author

Joff Winterhart

Joff Winterhart is an artist, writer, occasional film-maker, 'drummer', and dog fan. His graphic novel Days of the Bagnold Summer was shortlisted for the Costa Novel Award in 2012 and adapted into a film. His second graphic novel Driving Short Distances came out in 2017. He also made the animated films Two Guys I know and Violet and Turquoise, which won the Cymru BAFTA for best animation in 2003. He lives in Bristol, where he plays drums and writes songs in the long-running band Bucky, and thinks about getting a new dog.
JW

Also by Joff Winterhart

Days of the Bagnold Summer
Driving Short Distances
See all

Praise for Dear Historian

'A delightful odd-couple story about two women bringing the past to life...I thought it would be hard for Winterhart to top Driving Short Distances, one of my favourite graphic novels of the past 10 years. But somehow, with this rather offbeat premise, he’s managed it...The story Winterhart weaves around this curious clash of personalities is an unmitigated delight'

Killian Fox, Observer *Graphic Novel of the Month*

Brilliant... Offbeat, poignant, incredibly funny. It will win your heart!

Claire Powell, author of ALL IN

Exquisitely observed and utterly brilliant

Sunday Times

A big fat tear has just plopped onto the final page of Dear Historian. What a perfect book... A complete masterclass. So well-observed, so clever, so funny, so beautifully made... I think this book observes old age better than any fiction I can think of. Truly special.

Max Porter

A kind, warm, understated book about ageing and bereavement and friendship across the generations

Mark Haddon

Offbeat and understated, while absolutely radiating pathos, humour and charm. [Winterhart] has a knack for zeroing in on the most unassuming characters and allowing them to shine in all their idiosyncrasy. I found this very funny but also deeply moving, and so skilfully judged — his work moves in a way that feels entirely natural and believable, resisting grand finales in favour of what feels real and true

Lisa Owens

Supported by consistently spot-on dialogue and scenes, the development of this friendship between two lonely souls sharing a common grief lends a unique depth to a delicate story

Le Monde

A masterpiece of graphic literature

Planète BD

A witty, touching, and sometimes very funny album. [...] Dear Historian is above all a remarkably subtle study of manners and the image we have of ourselves and the image we think we project

Livres Hebdo

The quiet but touching story explores an unexpected friendship between a septuagenarian historian and a younger TV producer. Winterhart’s use of monoprinting — a labour-intensive process of drawing on paper atop an inked sheet of glass — lends texture to the monochrome scenes, imbuing them with a visually layered archaeology that befits his subject.

Financial Times