SUZANNE THE JAZZ AGE GODDESS OF TENNIS HC BOOKPLATE EDITION

Gosh! Best Of 2022

One of the all-time greats of tennis, Suzanne Lenglen should by all rights be a household name. The French player dominated women's tennis throughout the 1920's, challenging convention with her daring (which is to say, actually practical) dress choices and her uncompromising attitudes. With an incredible 181 match winning streak, she was a colossus of the court, and yet is largely unknown today. Humberstone, himself a huge tennis fan, admits that his only knowledge of her for many years was a court named for her at the French Open. This book is an attempt to rectify that, shining a light on Lenglen's life and revealing a woman who struggled, battled and conquered both on and off the court, changing the face of tennis forever. Humberstone - whose own spotlight as one of the UK's most accomplished comics creators is well overdue - paints a full picture of a woman who fought the system and won. An engaging read no matter your interest level in the sport.

While stocks last: Our copies of Suzane come with a beautiful Gosh!-exclusive bookplate signed by Tom Humberstone.

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, 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.