Henny Beaumont

Acclaimed graphic novelist, illustrator and award winning political cartoonist

Agent: James Spackman

Henny has four grown up children and her third daughter Beth, has Downs Syndrome. Her first book, A Hole in the Heart (Myriad Editions), is about Beth and was shortlisted for the first graphic novel prize, and selected by Mumsnet as one of ten best novels about motherhood of all time.  She also illustrated the children’s book Equal to Everything with Afua Hirsch, about Lady Hale.

Henny won an arts Arts Council award  to create Dirty Work, her second graphic novel. Dirty Work is a dark, wayward story about a marriage, infidelity, and childhood pain, all seen through the lens of therapy. The story is about a family teetering on the edge of collapse. Henny comes from a family of therapists and believes in the slow burn of therapy to fathom ourselves and help with our difficulties. Her mum, brother and daughter are all therapists, and she’s had extensive therapy. Although this book is in no way a memoir, it owes a lot to these relationships and experiences.

Henny is also an arts educator who’s passionate about inclusion. She organises creative workshops for artists with learning disabilities and puts on exhibitions of their work and collaborations with other artists. Motivated by injustice, she works with marginalised young people to produce zines and co-produced the graphic memoir, The Book of Homelessness, with Accumulate charity supported by Ravensbourne Art college.

She is currently obsessed with The Arsenal and is writing and drawing about the football.