Mansfield and Me by Sarah Laing

I had slightly mixed reactions to this very original graphic memoir.  It was brilliant, beautifully illustrated and I learned a lot more about Katherine Mansfield (one of the handful of truly famous New Zealand writers).

But the author did choose to include a few controversial things – mostly in the sexual line – including a handful of pretty graphic illustrations.

For me the positives far outweighed any negatives.  This author has a website called Let Me Be Frank – it is also worth a look.

She takes the story of her own life as a budding writer from New Zealand and draws in parallel from Katherine Mansfield's life – and at times the two end up communicating with each other.  Quite fascinating.  You don't end up confusing the 2 stories because all the Mansfield story is in black and white and the author's is in colour.