These Pretty Thieves

This was my first entry to the Jonathan Cape/Observer Graphic Short Story Competition, from back in 2014. Based around a poem I wrote that can also be found in ‘a Spirit of Nature’s Invention’, it explores the fault-lines between the industrial revolution and the Romantic movement. Hand drawn illustrations invoke a sense of disquiet and unease, reflected in the mournful verse.

Through out the poem, as the natural world is dispossessed and displaced, the living creatures infiltrate the city and claim it as their own. Their mundane, joyless presence a reminder of a cold reality - that nature still strives to survive in even the least romantic of places – which renders the romanticism of humans a hollow celebration.