The eviction of Claremont Road

The Claremont Road eviction lasted from 28th November to 5th December 1994. I was there for the first 24 hours of it. I watched my future husband being drilled out of a lock-on in the middle of the road, although it would be another four years before we met each other, and seven before we fell in love.

I did this cartoon afterwards:

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This set a theme for quite a few of my early cartoons. I was making the political personal. In telling the personal stories of people engaged in environmental activism, the cartoons emphasise their humanity, break down media stereotypes of “eco-warriors” “green activists” and general ‘otherness’, and enable the reader to make common cause with their motivations. (Which are eminently sensible and understandable, after all.)

This cartoon, in particular, is open to the accusation of being “insufferably twee”. I’m not going to apologise. It’s the story of a naive young woman from Brighton with dodgy taste in shoes. It is what it is.

It’s not the only cartoon I drew about the Claremont eviction. I also drew this next one. And I went on to write Copse, telling the story of M11 activists in their own words, without any added sparkles.

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