W&N wins Bucknall’s ‘captivating’ graphic Virginia Woolf biography in three-way auction

Weidenfeld & Nicolson (W&N) has won Ella Bucknall’s “fascinating, engaged and deeply scholarly” graphic biography of Virginia Woolf in a three-way auction.

Lettice Franklin, publishing director, acquired UK and Commonwealth rights to Virginia Woolf: A Graphic Biography from Harriet Moore at David Higham Associates. It will be published in summer 2024. 

North American rights to the book have been pre-empted by Naomi Gibbs at Pantheon. French rights were landed by Joachim Schnerf at Editions Grasset, Spanish rights by Lola Martínez de Albornoz at Lumen, while German rights have been sold at auction to Antje Röttgers at Rowohlt. 

The publisher says: “From Woolf’s earliest memoirs of the sound of the sea in St Ives to her final submersion in the River Ouse, Bucknall tells the story of Woolf’s life, recalling deaths and marriages, friendships and rivalries, creative droughts and floods of inspiration. Combining her distinctive and intricate illustrations, with a scholar’s intellect and understanding of Woolf’s life and works, Bucknall’s is a completely original approach to this most beloved author, and a pioneering contribution to the biography genre.”

Franklin said: “Ella Bucknall’s pages captured my heart, brain and eye in a way that no project has done before. This book does so much at once. It is a fresh, fascinating, engaged and deeply scholarly response to Virginia Woolf’s work. 

“It is a wildly imaginative piece of storytelling about one woman’s life. It is a thing of visual beauty. And it introduces a major new talent in Ella Bucknall, an exceptionally skilled illustrator, storyteller and biographer. I feel sure that her book will be cherished by readers that love Virginia Woolf; readers that love graphic novels or biographies; readers looking to be transported by the very best storytelling.”

Bucknall is a writer and illustrator currently studying for a PhD in creative writing at King’s College London. This is her first book. She said: “As an illustrator, a graphic biography felt like the most natural way for me to tell the story of Virginia Woolf’s life, but it is also perfect for Virginia; it is irreverent, by virtue of its form. I fell in love with Woolf’s writing first at university, but – from the impression I had of her – it took me by surprise, too, because it was so radical and joyful and sensual. In my biography, I wanted to dispel some of the famous myths about Virginia Woolf and show instead what she herself believed to be ‘a good draught of human life...with much champagne in it’.’’