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Chris Downs @chris-downs.bsky.social · 30/05/2026

Back from a trip to Wales & a day at @hayfestival.bsky.social. Greatly enjoyed the festival talk by @rickardsisters.com & @myfanwytristram.bsky.social. Gosh! People were buying a lot of books!

Copies of The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, No Surrender, and This Slavery on the shelves of the 2026 Hay Festival bookshop in a big tent. All three are graphic novel adaptations of political novels first published in the early 20th century - drawing by Scarlett Rickard & words by Sophie Rickard.

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Chris Downs @chris-downs.bsky.social · 17/05/2026

Worthing & the Spanish Civil War: A Fight Against Fascism In Worthing on Friday 22 May. blogs.brighton.ac.uk/sussexbrigad... www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/worthing-a...

A poster advertising an event: Worthing and the Spanish Civil War: A Fight Against Fascism
Friday 22 May 2026 at AudioActive in Worthing.

The dominant colours in the top half are red, yellow and purple. The lower part comprises a period posed photograph of young people in bathing costumes with Worthing pier behind.

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Chris Downs @chris-downs.bsky.social · 05/04/2026

🎭 The @townsendprod.bsky.social one man show version of The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists is terrific. The tour continues in Newcastle-upon-Tyne on 15 April. All dates listed on this amazing site by @theatricalia.com theatricalia.com/play/fhk/the...

Promotional image from https://www.townsendproductions.org.uk/shows/a-new-one-man-magic-lantern-show-of-the-classic-book-the-ragged-trouseed-philanthropists/
Red text on a yellow background reads: The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists. Below is a picture of a bearded man in a hat playing a small accordion together with other promotional text and logos.

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Chris Downs @chris-downs.bsky.social · 29/03/2026

I saw your dad's eye-catching handiwork yesterday, and took a photo of yours in case you didn't know it was on the march. Little did I suspect it was your dad and his friends! Solidarity!

Marchers on the Together Alliance march in London on 38 March 2026. Two placards are prominent. One says Make Art Not War in black letters on a vivid blue background. The other is highly decorative in mainly red & green and says Don"t Let the Bastards Grind You Down.

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Chris Downs @chris-downs.bsky.social · 10/01/2026

Donations can be made here: www.chichesterwomenshistorygroup.org/donate

An image showing the planned statue of Madge Turner, campaigner for women's suffrage. The statue is of a woman in a long skirt holding a flag/standard. In the background is the former Dolphin Hotel on West Street, Chichester.

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Chris Downs @chris-downs.bsky.social · 01/12/2025

... passing of the 1825 Combination Act, an important moment in trade union history. My photo shows Sophie & Scarlett's version (top right) alongside two earlier editions of the book, and what I think is *the* manuscript. I can strongly recommend the beautiful graphic novel version. 2/2

A photo of three books and a manuscript in a display case. See text of post for details.

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Chris Downs @chris-downs.bsky.social · 03/11/2025

That's the one! My copy is pretty clean too. I fear it's a copy a comrade lent me but it took me so long to read that I never returned it. I console myself with the thought that maybe it was really meant as a gift. 🥴

A photograph of The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists by Robert Tressell. It's a thick hardback book. The dust jacket is mainly red and features a black & white drawing of a man wearing an apron holding a paint pot in one hand and a paint brush in the other.

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Chris Downs @chris-downs.bsky.social · 06/09/2025

This Slavery, the graphic novel adaptation by @rickardsisters.com It's terrific! rickardsisters.com/news-post/th...

An image of the front cover of This Slavery by Scarlett & Sophie Rickard. The book is a graphic novel adaptation of a novel writtjen by Ethel Carnie Holdsworth and originally published in 1925. The front cover shows the two main characters, sisters Hester & Rachel Martin standing back to back in a street of terraced houses. One is fair, the other is dark-haired. They are looking out at us, the viewers, and there are smoking factory chimneys in the background. The white face of a dog looks out us from behind the long coat or skirt of the sister on the right.

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Chris Downs @chris-downs.bsky.social · 06/09/2025

There's romance in 'This Slavery' by Ethel Carnie Holdsworth. She'd had several books published before, including popular romances; but her publisher refused to publish 'This Slavery' and it was only published in 1925, some years after it was written. In 2025 the @rickardsisters.com have created a

An image showing three panels from p.28 of This Slavery. The book is a graphic novel adaptation by Scarlett & Sophie Rickard of a novel written in the early 20th century by Ethel Carnie Holdsworth. In these panels Jack Baines is seeking Mrs Martin's approval for his romantic relationship with her younger daughter Hester (known as Hessie). The three characters are sitting at the dining table in the Martins' home.

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Chris Downs @chris-downs.bsky.social · 05/09/2025

Wow! This is hard-hitting. A real "Marxist-Feminist thunderclap" as the creators of the graphic novel adaptation put it. 'This Slavery' by Ethel Carnie Holdsworth was first published in 1925. The @rickardsisters.com version is just out, published by @selfmadehero.bsky.social Read it & #JoinAUnion

Photo of the front cover of the 2025 graphic novel adaptation of Ethel Carnie Holdsworth's early 20th century novel This Slavery. The cover shows the two main characters Hester & Rachel Martin standing back to back in a street of terraced housing, with factory chimneys in the background.

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Chris Downs @chris-downs.bsky.social · 03/09/2025

Delighted to be reading today the *brand new* graphic novel adaptation by @rickardsisters.com It's a worthy successor to their previous brilliant books: The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists and No Surrender. All published by @selfmadehero.bsky.social

Photo of text on back cover of This Slavery by Scarlett and Sophie Rickard. It reads as follows.
Thrown out of work when the cotton mill burns down, sisters Rachel and Hesther Martin are forced find new ways to survive. One agitates for reform, striving to free her community from the enslavement of the factory system; the other submits to the slavery of a patriarchal marriage. A hundred years after the first publication of Ethel Carnie Holdsworth's lost classic, this sumptuous adaptation by sisters Scarlett and Sophie Rickard weaves her tale of romance and hope through the cobbled streets of industrial Lancashire.

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Chris Downs @chris-downs.bsky.social · 08/07/2025

My copy of this cool little book arrived today. Thanks @radicalposters.bsky.social!

Picture of the cover of "Spain 1936-39", a pocket book of radical posters published in 2025 by The Radical Poster Collective. The cover features the poster "CNT 19 Julio 1936" - a man waving a rifle in his left hand as if in celebration or exhortation.

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Chris Downs @chris-downs.bsky.social · 25/05/2025

"The Silk Mill Festival marks the year-long strike of Derby and Derwent Valley silk mill workers from 1833/34, against ruthless bosses who routinely ripped off their already low-paid workers through pay cuts and denied them trade union rights..." It's on 7 June. www.tuc.org.uk/events/2025-...

Image of poster advertising the 2025 procession and festival in Derby commemorating the 1883/4 silk mill lockout.

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Chris Downs @chris-downs.bsky.social · 25/05/2025

Looking good in my kitchen - temporarily at least, as I bought them to give as gifts. Thank you, Sophie and Scarlett!

Decorative tea towel with the words Unity is Strength

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Chris Downs @chris-downs.bsky.social · 27/09/2024

This arrived yesterday. I bought it to give to a niece but I'm enjoying reading it first. Another great book published by @selfmadehero.bsky.social www.hive.co.uk/Product/Jost...

A photo of the front cover of volume 1 of "Sophie's World", the graphic novel based on Jostein Gaarder's novel. It shows the head and shoulders of a teenaged girl (Sophie) looking up at a pale round world on which Sophie is standing at the position of the south pole, so she appears upside down to the viewer.

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Chris Downs @chris-downs.bsky.social · 18/09/2024

Bluesky now has over 10 million users, and it seems I was #2,074,962! Well, I'll go to the foot of our stairs.

A graphic from Bluesky showing the number 2,074,962 and reporting that I joined in November 2023.

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Chris Downs @chris-downs.bsky.social · 19/03/2024

I thought @dmitryopines.bsky.social might appreciate me pointing out here that according to a post in the old place he has a book coming out soon: Why Politicians Lie About Trade.

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