''Tamara Drewe'' is a weekly

comic strip A comic strip is a sequence of drawings, often cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions. Traditionally, throughout the 20th and into the 21st ...

serial by

Posy Simmonds Rosemary Elizabeth "Posy" Simmonds MBE, FRSL (born 9 August 1945) is a British newspaper cartoonist, and writer and illustrator of both children's books and graphic novels. She is best known for her long association with ''The Guardian'', for wh ...

, which had a 13 month run in ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

''s Review section. The strip is based upon a modern reworking of

Thomas Hardy Thomas Hardy (2 June 1840 – 11 January 1928) was an English novelist and poet. A Victorian realist in the tradition of George Eliot, he was influenced both in his novels and in his poetry by Romanticism, including the poetry of William Word ...

's 1874 novel ''

Far from the Madding Crowd ''Far from the Madding Crowd'' (1874) is Thomas Hardy's fourth novel and his first major literary success. It originally appeared anonymously as a monthly serial in ''Cornhill Magazine'', where it gained a wide readership. The novel is set in ...

''. The story was adapted into a feature film starring

Gemma Arterton Gemma Christina Arterton (born 2 February 1986) is an English actress and producer. After her stage debut in Shakespeare's ''Love's Labour's Lost'' at the Globe Theatre (2007), Arterton made her feature film debut in the comedy ''St Trinian's'' ...

Plot

The story is set in Stonefield, a writer's retreat run by Beth and Nicholas Hardiman, where the novelist Glen Larson stays to find inspiration for his latest novel. Tamara Drewe, a young gossip columnist, has returned to her family home nearby. Her sexy looks have every man in the vicinity falling for her. When she has a relationship with rockstar Ben Sergeant she unknowingly infatuates two teenage girlfriends, Casey and Jody, who start to intermingle with her affairs.

Publication history

The strip made its first appearance in ''The Guardian'' on 17 September 2005, in the first

Berliner Berliner is most often used to designate a citizen of Berlin, Germany Berliner may also refer to: People * Berliner (surname) Places * Berliner Lake, a lake in Minnesota, United States * Berliner Philharmonie, concert hall in Berlin, Germany ...

-sized Saturday edition.

Collected editions

The complete work was published as a single volume with hardcover (

Jonathan Cape Jonathan Cape is a London publishing firm founded in 1921 by Herbert Jonathan Cape, who was head of the firm until his death in 1960. Cape and his business partner Wren Howard set up the publishing house in 1921. They established a reputation ...

, November 2007, ) and softcover editions (

Mariner Books Mariner Books, originally an imprint of HMH Books, was established in 1997 as a publisher of fiction, non-fiction, and poetry in trade paperback. Mariner is also the publisher of the Harvest backlist, formerly published by Harcourt Brace/Harcou ...

, October 2008, ; Jonathan Cape, September 2009, ). It has also been translated into French (Editions Denoël, October 2008, ), German (Reprodukt, January 2010, ), and Swedish (Wibom books, October 2011, ).

Awards

''Tamara Drewe'' won the 2009

Prix de la critique The Prix de la critique is a prize awarded by the Association des Critiques et des journalistes de Bande Dessinée to the best comic album released for a year in France. Previously, from 1984 to 2003, it was called ''Prix Bloody Mary'' and awarded ...

Film adaptation

The comic has been adapted into a feature film starring

and

Dominic Cooper Dominic Edward Cooper (born 2 June 1978) is an English actor known for his portrayal of comic book characters Jesse Custer on the AMC show ''Preacher'' (2016–2019) and young Howard Stark in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with appearances in ...

and directed by

Stephen Frears Stephen Arthur Frears (born 20 June 1941) is an English director and producer of film and television often depicting real life stories as well as projects that explore social class through sharply drawn characters. He's received numerous accola ...

Momentum Pictures Momentum Pictures is a film distributor and a subsidiary of Entertainment One, itself part of Hasbro. Prior to 2013, it was a brand of Canadian distributor Alliance Films used for its releases in the United Kingdom, and was one of the leading i ...

released the film in the UK on 10 September 2010. The film premièred at the

Cannes Film Festival The Cannes Festival (; french: link=no, Festival de Cannes), until 2003 called the International Film Festival (') and known in English as the Cannes Film Festival, is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films o ...

in May 2010

References

{{Far from the Madding Crowd 2005 comics debuts 2007 comics endings British comic strips British comics adapted into films Drewe, Tamara Drewe, Tamara Drama comics Drewe, Tamara Drewe, Tamara Romance comics Slice of life comics Adaptations of works by Thomas Hardy