Florrie

With the Women’s Euros under way at last, what could be more timely than this beautiful, understated first graphic novel by Anna Trench?... Warm and inspiriting as well as delicately painful, it surely heralds the arrival of a big new talent in the world of the cartoon

Rachel Cooke, Observer

As well as being a book about football this is also a book about seeing the life you want on the horizon and reaching out, as best you can, to meet it. A tender, quiet book which packs a gently devastating punch.

Lizzy Stewart, author of ALISON

Charming and incredibly moving. I loved it from start to finish and cried at the end.

Rachel Ramsay, director of COPA 71

Such a moving and heart-warming book. A poignant exploration of the worlds of freedom that open and close around us, both in our futures and in our pasts. Most of all, Florrie is bright with the feeling of liberation, and the risks and joys of following your heart.

Seán Hewitt, author of OPEN, HEAVEN

In love with it... Florrie had us in floods of tears. Twice... Whatever she does next quite literally can’t come fast enough for us.

Bookmunch

I enjoyed every page. So good to see a bande desinee book as fine and original in terms of story and illustration, and in England. I thought it tender and true. Remarkable.

Michael Morpurgo

[It has] the emotional intelligence and sharpness of Paula Knight and Alison Bechdel... so beautifully captures the experience of playing, belonging... The book is so timely....I so admire the way this book has found a way to bring this history into public view as a part of the conversation about the game now.

Claire Lynch, author of A FAMILY MATTER

Between the - beautifully drawn and deceptively simple - lines of Florrie there is a world of suppressed desire and yearning. Florrie longs to play a forbidden game, to be in love, to move through terrible grief. Anna Trench vividly recreates the sadness and shock of the post-Great War era, when the FA banned women's football, and skilfully entwines it with a queer love story and a young woman becoming herself.

Miriam Gold, author of ELENA: A HAND MADE LIFE

A triumph for the art of the book, the women's game, and queer love. A quirky classic. Everything about it is wonderfully done - the drawings, dialogue, period detail, mischief and fun. I loved it.

Diana Souhami, author of NO MODERNISM WITHOUT LESBIANS