The Bodyguard Unit: Edith Garrud, Women's Suffrage, and Jujitsu

by Clément Xavier, Lisa Lugrin (Illustrator)

Overview

Who were the jujitsuffragettes?

In the early twentieth century, women in England demanded the right to vote—and faced violent retaliation. Rather than back down, the suffragist group Women's Social and Political Union formed its own security unit. Edith Garrud, a pioneering self-defense instructor, trained them to fight back against abuse and arrest while pursuing long-overdue rights.

This graphic retelling of Garrud's life reveals the resilience and (often physical) resistance of her era's voting-rights activists. Featuring an introduction from Elsa Dorlin (Self-Defense: A Philosophy of Violence), The Bodyguard Unit explores an explosive stage of the fight for suffrage.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9798765607473
Publisher:	Lerner Publishing Group
Publication date:	08/01/2023
Pages:	136
Sales rank:	644,524
Product dimensions:	8.25(w) x 10.25(h) x 0.34(d)
Age Range:	12 - 13 Years

About the Author

Clement Xavier is a writer based in France. In 2015, Xavier and illustrator Lisa Lugrin jointly received the prestigious Prix Révélation (Debut Prize) at the Angoulême International Comics Festival for their first French-language graphic novel, Yékini, le roi des arènes.

Lisa Lugrin is a comic book artist and author based in France. In 2015, Lugrin and Clement Xavier jointly received the prestigious Prix Révélation (Debut Prize) at the Angoulême International Comics Festival. She is co-founder of Na editions.

Editorial Reviews

"This engaging and informative graphic biography, which includes historical back matter, about an overlooked yet influential suffragist and martial artist deserves a spot in every graphic-novel collection." —starred, Booklist

From the Publisher

07/03/2023

In this high-energy work, Xavier highlights Edith Garrud (1872–1971), a self-taught British martial artist dedicated to educating women in how to protect themselves amid a fraught period in early 20th-century England. During the suffragist movement, activists often faced brutal retaliation such as beatings by police, violent mass arrests, and forced feeding when jailed. Believing self-defense to be an essential life skill and hoping to generate more business for their financially struggling dojo, Garrud and her husband William offered to train the members of Emmeline Pankhurst’s Women’s Social and Political Union in jujitsu. Employing retro superhero comics style and fluidly rendered, cartoony, mostly white characters, Lugrin breathes life into the pursuits of the self-named Bodyguard Unit. The kinetic narrative traces the 1910 formation of this little-known group, leading up to a climactic confrontation in the 1914 Battle of Glasgow. The overarching narrative and concluding resources gloss over jujitsu’s Japanese roots. By emphasizing Garrud’s pursuit to instruct women in how to turn their “opponent’s physical superiority against him,” the creators present an empowering work both in content and visuals, about the figure who taught women how to take back their power. Ages 13–up. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly

12/01/2023

Gr 7 UpAug. 2023. Tr $30.65. ISBN 9781728445656. Gr 7 Up—The British suffragettes employed an exhaustive variety of tactics to gain visibility for the cause of granting women the right to vote. Among these were dramatic protests that involved violent clashes with police. Partly in response, suffragette leaders engaged the help of Edith Garrud, a jujitsu master, to teach them self-defense. Yes, that's right, a woman well-educated in and capable of teaching the martial art of jujitsu in Edwardian-era England. Garrud ran a dojo in her home with her husband, and suffragette leaders, including the inimitable and dramatic Emmeline Pankhurst, gradually enlisted her support for their cause. Garrud's support of the movement is timorous at first, but witnessing unfair judicial treatment of a domestic violence victim in her class and police brutality towards protestors brings Garrud, and readers, to fully embrace the necessity of self-defense in her societal moment. The Bodyguard Unit captures a well-documented but lesser-known piece of history with acumen, and subtly telegraphs the still relevant experience of employing radical means in an unjust system. One particularly clever method the comic employs is weaving images of primary sources (including a silent film) into the story, truly bringing its source material to life. VERDICT Well-balanced and easy to understand, a unique and involving lens through which to consider an essential moment in modern history.—Emilia Packard

School Library Journal

2023-05-24
A graphic nonfiction account of how early 20th-century British suffragettes used jujitsu to literally fight for the vote.

Focusing on Edith Garrud, who co-owned a dojo in London with her husband, William, the book tells the little-known story of how a subset of activist women agitating for women’s suffrage were trained in jujitsu. They used martial arts to cope with the violence and police brutality they encountered while peacefully marching and assembling. Garrud taught self-defense to the Bodyguard unit, a group affiliated with Emmeline Pankhurst’s Women’s Social and Political Union. The colorful panels illustrating the action are dynamic and engaging, expressing energy, speed, and noise. Compelling historical illustrations and photographs are interspersed. The dialogue, which imparts background context, is mostly snappy but occasionally too obviously didactic. The book chronicles the several years leading up to the dramatic 1914 Battle of Glasgow, when suffragettes fought Scottish police who were trying to arrest Pankhurst. The narrative also offers important detours into the prevalence and general societal acceptance of domestic violence as well as schisms within the suffragette movement regarding the most effective and politically palatable tactics. Scenes between Garrud and her husband provide insights into their marital and work lives. One line confusingly implies that Japan was colonized, and the book disappointingly includes no sources. However, a foreword by scholar Elsa Dorlin and helpful backmatter, including a timeline and historical notes, add useful information.

Engaging feminist history attractively presented. (illustration and photo credits) (Graphic nonfiction. 12-18)

Kirkus Reviews