Suzanne book review

Sometimes you come across a book that you can’t help but devour in one sitting. ‘Suzanne: The Jazz Age Goddess of Tennis’ caught my imagination with it’s storyline, beautiful illustration and attention to detail.

It charts the incredible story of Suzanne Lenglen, a woman who changed the face of sport and society in the trailblazing jazz age, but who few even remember.

One of the greatest tennis players the world has ever seen was a woman few even remember. A championship player by the age of fifteen in a Europe overshadowed by impending war, Suzanne Lenglen broke records for ticket sales and match winning streaks, scandalised and entranced the public with her playing outfits, and became a pioneer, making friends and enemies throughout restrictive tennis society in the trailblazing jazz age.

With stunning art and an astute eye, and featuring a foreword by founding co-secretary of the Women's Tennis Association and International Tennis Hall of Fame member Françoise Dürr, Suzanne explores how a figure both enormously influential and too-often overlooked battled her father's ambition, bias in sporting journalism, and her own divisive personality, to forge a new path - and to change sport forever.

I love this book so much, especially how Tom captures the action of a suspenseful game of tennis. And the twenties fashion is reflected perfectly in the colour palette of this graphic novel.

I’m currently re-reading the book and will be writing more for my regular column in The Leither magazine. In the meantime, if you’d like to pick up your own copy, you can purchase online from Tom’s shop, or in Leith from Argonaut books.