Where? by Simon Moreton

In 2017, Simon Moreton's father fell suddenly ill and died. His death sent the author back to his childhood home in rural Shropshire trying to process his grief by revisiting his family's time as transplants to the countryside. The story centres around Titterstone Clee Hill, and Caynham, the nearby village in which the author lived as a child. There are tales of empty mansions, of being bullied; cooking with his Dad, messing around with his brother, exploring forests; being an adult faced with an ill father; history and folklore of the Clee Hills; of high-society scandals, prejudice and fear; industrial decline and automation; haunted cliff faces; working on a radar station; of being a kid, of hospitals, of growing old, of the seasons passing, of his family, of his father and his kindnesses; of how he became whatever it is he was, and how this big hill was a backdrop to so much of it. In a memoir that that combines prose, illustration, photos, archival texts, and more, Where? weaves a gentle story that slips and slides in time and geography, creating connections across geographies, histories, families, times, and circumstance all to answer the question - 'where are you from?' Where? is more than a graphic novel, it is a treatise on grief, on childhood, nature, and belonging. It is a challenge to think differently about what it means to be 'from' somewhere, and how the political urgency of early twenty-first century living needs us to be more critical of our stories, reclaiming what is valuable to us from the grip of those who would take our histories and use them for division and exploitation.

About the Author
Simon Moreton is an artist and writer based in Bristol. He trained as a geographer, and in 2007 started to self published comics about memory, place, and autobiography. His debut graphic novel, Plans We Made is a minimal, impressionistic memoir of teenage life in the suburbs. He has gone on to publish the critically acclaimed series Minor Leagues, a magazine of comics, art, and writing. By day he works as an academic, working on projects that seek to make creative work more equitable, sustainable, and resilient. He is currently Senior Research Fellow at the Creative Economies Lab at UWE Bristol.


Book Information
ISBN 9781908213877
Author Simon Moreton
Format Paperback
Page Count 320
Imprint Little Toller Books
Publisher Little Toller Books