Walking Distance

by Lizzy Stewart

Merging the personal and the political, observation and contemplation, the author examines what her life is and wonders what it should be; what is expected of a thirty year old woman by society, by family and friends and by herself. She walks the streets of her London, creating it and herself -- gaining agency by being in control of her own direction, speed and momentum. Walking is both an internal and external experience. It's a time for self-reflection, for observing others and for imagining how we appear to them. What is expected of a person of our age, sex, and race, and how should that influence what we do and how we feel about ourselves?

A poignant and contemporary meditation on gender politics, social commentary, and eighties movies, all interlaced with shards of autobiography and illustrated with a beautiful series of sequential and non-sequential watercolour images.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Nonfiction, Comics, Memoir, Graphic Novels Comics, Art, Feminism

56 pages, Paperback

First published December 20, 2019

About the author

Lizzy Stewart is a British illustrator and author currently based in London. She has written and illustrated various books for children and adults. Her debut full-length illustrated novel Alison was published in 2022. She teaches illustration at Goldsmiths University and has also taught courses on behalf of the National Portrait Gallery.

Reviews

[Kirsten Hamilton · Rating 5 out of 5]

So refreshing to read something so honest and so beautifully personal. An insight into the thoughts and feelings of one of my favourite children’s book illustrators and seeing just how much like me she is is very encouraging. I always feel that being a children’s book illustrator you have to think a certain way but that’s not true. We’re all human, living our little piece of this world, and each moment is ours. A wonderful little book that has a big place in my heart.

[Christine · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author of this book is approximately the same age as my daughter. I hear a lot of what concerns my daughter in this woman's words. The illustrations as well as her written words paint a vivid portrait of what it means to be 30-something these days. I may be twice their age but I appreciate what she is telling me.

[Io Nuca · Rating 5 out of 5]

I know what my girlfriends will get for Christmas ♥️ Loved it!

[Moira Macfarlane · Rating 4 out of 5]

A graphic novella. Thoughts and questions that pop up Stewarts head while walking the London streets. Like her I think walking has that effect of seeing things clearer, see where you struggle. Not always soothing, but clarifying. I liked reading it and loved her drawings in greys and blues.

'I think about walking a lot and I have tried to work out why it is the only way that I can clearly visualise myself. I think it makes me, an uncertain person, into a machine in forward motion; definite and capable. I like walking because it takes me out of my head and into the world. Walking is the clearest way for me to participate in life and that's the best I can do.'

Voor een inkijkje: https://www.instagram.com/p/CGr_d8OAcpC/

[Ina · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the parts where Lizzie Stewart shared her experience and opinion. Where she described the stark contrast between women in movies walking down the street empowered and unaffected, in comparison to reality where any man might whisper something gruesome to you as you walk down the streets of London. So much so that I wore headphones non stop after a few years to guarantee my sanity.
I liked where she shares how capable and agile she felt, darting through the tourists and crowds of the tube. I can also relate to the sense of achievement and prowess I felt, turning an exhausting and mind numbing commute into a sort of mini game.
I like these moments in the comic because I learn something about myself and about her.

But so many of the musings in “Walking Distance” are about not taking a stance, not wanting to offend, not daring to speak out in case it sounds like she’s speaking with certainty or out of turn or for other women. The apologetic, hesitant tone, in such a personal and naturally subjective form, felt flat and distant to me.

There’s so much she could say, I feel she wanted to say, and I think it had the potential of being a powerful, cathartic experience. I got this comic because I lived and walked in so many of London’s boroughs in my 20s and felt routinely unsafe. I wasn’t sure if it was because I was an immigrant, if that caused more attention or if I was just sensitive and not used to it… I haven’t heard many women talk about what that was like to take up public space today in London as a woman by herself and it would’ve been really powerful to see more of Lizzie’s lived experience, personal anecdotes, of her bringing herself and her reality with confidence and conviction onto the page.

[Owen Townend · Rating 4 out of 5]

A short thought-provoking graphic novel. I myself enjoy walking from A to B though I haven't really considered the meditative potential for it like Stewart does here. I especially enjoyed the movie examples, namely the odd cinematic theme of women walking round cities.

I also found the way Stewart compares the steady act of putting one foot in front of another to the state of modern living very relatable; feeling out of step with the norm. While her contemporaries are busy setting up families for themselves, Stewart prefers to enjoy a more solitary existence. There's obviously nothing wrong with that but sometimes there is doubt that it's the right way to go.

The artwork is very evocative with its prevalence of greys and blues. One might suspect the overall feeling to be dour but not always. These are the colours of most streets, especially during the dark days of winter. So long as you get some quality alone time, who is really bothered by the backdrop?

I recommend Walking Distance to fellow contemplative ambulators, especially women.

[Cindy Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book reads like the types of thoughts that women have while they are walking solo in a city. The city doesn't much matter, as they tend to be the same throughout most of the world. Observing, questioning, thinking about how what you witness relates to or does not relate to your life. Lizzy examines her place in the world using the metaphor of walking alone. She is reasonably happy with her life, but that does not mean that she does not question her choices from time to time - her decision to devote her life to illustration/writing, being single, sometimes unsure about what she truly wants. Not only were her thoughts relatable, but the astute illustrations add to her meditations on life. If you like autobiographical, slice of life narratives, then I think you will enjoy this book.

[Mind the Book · Rating 4 out of 5]

En Londonbok. Ganska mörk.

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love lizzy stewart

[Maya · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beautiful ink/watercolor!

[Daisy May Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Existing within the city - within the world - is often no simple nor straightforward thing, particularly for a woman and Walking Distance by Lizzie Stewart is no simple nor straightforward thing. It is a complex, challenging, reflexive, and occasionally deeply wonderful meditation on life within the city. On taking the streets that "would make your parents uneasy". On taking up space. On being.

There's a rich heritage to this sort of thing ranging from Flâneuse by Lauren Elkin through to A Room Of One's Own by Virginia Woolf, and, I think, those eternal stories see a young woman trying to figure out who she wishes to be in the world whilst the world threatens to move on without her. I'm trying not to say 'things like Bridget Jones' but I am essentially saying 'things like Bridget Jones'. Some of the spreads where Stewart looks at herself as much as the world about her are precious moments of story where her lines and colours move as much as the text itself.

I think that notion of movement is key here; this is a comic that moves, whether that's those delicious moments of abstraction that conjure stormy skies and the Thames in the same breadth, or a panel with a figure in the distant corners of a housing estate. A woman existing, with something she is moving from and something she is going to. A woman with story, whether that's Meryl Streep or Nola Darling. I was intrigued to see how Stewart navigated her story; this is a text that could be read as being "of woman" (in those readings that we see so often and sometimes so reductively applied to women writing about womenish things...). Stewart works hard to question that kind of globalist reading, recognising that she can not speak for other women's experiences within the city and only her own. And yet there's a strength in that singularity, a fascination in it that the book almost seems shy or nervous of recognising.

I think what I'm reaching for her is the notion of an echo, a ripple. A pebble dropped in the middle of an ocean. An impact made. An articulation of a moment; a parallel found. A slight, slender thread in the messy, complicated dark. A story of the individual, but also a story of us, of all of us.

My thanks to the publisher for a review copy.

[Aylla · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm so glad that I came across this book during the lockdown. The lovely illustration attracted me, but there is so much more inside.
Lizzy Stewart, you got yourself a new fan here.

[Heiley paulo · Rating 5 out of 5]

“my heart will skip a beat at the sight of her, in possession of her own life,in the city,alone.”

I’m so glad my university course lead me to read this book. Walking is something I do almost every day , Lizzy Stewart’s writing seamlessly jumps from one thought to the next in the exact way my mind does when I’m walking , so much so it was almost as if I were walking the streets of London with her , seeing and feeling the things she felt , and linking with her thoughts.
she briefly touches on some of life’s biggest tragedies yet she continues on with the story. It’s the same way we all have a thought and then it passes us by , we continue on with the very next thing we decide to do. And sometimes that is to ignore it , or to engage with it.
I especially like how she goes on to explain that she cannot speak for the way others feel about anything she has written , she knows that so many others have so many different experiences in life, we are all so unique and the places we live in , the places we walk about , enjoy walking to , to see new and old things shape the way we think or even the people we are.
The thoughts within this story were like stopping points , moments a thought so strong stops us in our tracks and hooks into us , or follows us around for the rest of the day, it’s so intriguing how I found myself so able to relate to this, as I’m sure so many others have too.
Also the illustrations were so beautiful.
Other quotes I liked :

- what right would I have to suggest this experience as anything but my own ?

- so whilst part of me feels paralysed by my own inability to make definitive statements , I also feel, quite definitively, like screaming ; like burning it all to the ground.

- I seem incapable of remembering these things indoors, only outside , where I am distracted seconds later by anything more interesting .
( I particularly like this quote , to me it’s as if she means to say sometimes we can only face the things we know we need to do or the thoughts we are frightened to have , when we are outdoors , and sure to be distracted so shortly after the immediate thought )

[S.Matt Read · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a meditation. The author focuses on walking (the idea of it, why walking fascinates her), but you get the sense that she's using walking to interrogate her relationship/understanding of womanhood and to a broader degree how she's fairing against the idea of her mother's womanhood. The author doesn't really get into whether her mom is alive or not, but it seems like some other story is there right beneath the surface. There's also some small discussion of the problems of the world at large, but she rightly spends most of the book focusing on the minutiae of everyday life, both her own and scenes of women walking in films.

Walking Distance is fairly short and can be read in a sitting. As a walker myself, it's easy to slip into the mind of another, get a partial sense of their perspective, and see how it feels/fits. I found myself agreeing wholeheartedly about some passages; others I found of interest without being able to relate.

The artwork is beautiful. Watercolors mainly. It adds to the gentle feel of the meditation.

I do not enjoy judging something based on what it is not, but as stated above, I do get the sense that there was a lot left unsaid, that the author was holding back. You keep waiting for her to address it (whatever "it" is), but she never does, and while it's not fair to say she stays on the surface, she also doesn't go particularly deep. All that to say, I guess I wanted/expected more.

[Carmen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful illustrations and the main reason for buying the book having discovered the author on instagram. It's a short book about the authors own experience of walking the streets of London where she lives and using that time to think and reflect. I think this book came out in 2019 going by the details on the front page. All of the musings and worries and things that tie her together in knots are especially relevant today. I think a lot of people would resonate with the things that occupy our minds when we walk - when we are switched off from technology and our inner voices have chance to surface. My favourite quote from the book: If depression is a black dog, then world events are a crow trapped in your house. the crow careers from room to room, panicked and screeching. It stops still, but you know it'll start flapping and hurling itself at windows at any second. It doesn't let you rest. It beats you into every room, the crow that is the state of things. I don't want to learn how to live with it.

[Daisy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quality Rating: Five Stars
Enjoyment Rating: Five Stars

Sometimes you find things that seem so cosmically similar to your thoughts and your life that it’s disorientating. I will acknowledge that of course there are many things that make me alike to Lizzy Stewart and really it’s that surprising that her work resonated with me, as I’m sure it does with hundreds if not thousands of other people. But there was something about opening this graphic novel/personal essay on just getting to grips with life as a independent woman, that starts with a note on loving women in films just walking with their thoughts, that made me sink into the experience. I, too, have felt powerful walking through London because I knew the way many hoards didn’t despite being from somewhere else. I’ve avoided world events like they were crows flocking to square at me - and then felt guiltier for doing so. I’ve wondered if my choices to try things on my own have made me selfish and ultimately childish. And Stewart’s lovely little book just quietly says, that’s okay. Let’s keep going.

[Nadhirah · Rating 5 out of 5]

As someone who is very fond of walking, this book resonated strongly with me. I feel like Stewart fished out all the thoughts and reflections I have running through my head every day and perfectly articulated them in a way I never can. Of being a woman, of being a woman living in a city, of just being.

[Holly · Rating 5 out of 5]

I adore Lizzie Stewart, the way she thinks and how she puts those thoughts in to words and illustrations. Her books, this one especially, make me feel less like I'm the only one thinking my thoughts and living my, often not convential, experiences. A book for women in their 30s working out what life should look like and how to navigate it and what comes next.

[Denise · Rating 5 out of 5]

I deeply identify with much of these musings. I, too, walk alone in the city. The prose is sparse and elegant. I love that it leaves space to generate my own thoughts along these themes. I love that re-reading this brings up different thoughts every time. It's a purse-book to carry everywhere and always have a little something to see anew. I wish the art was in color.

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautifully contemplative illustrated meditation on being a women in the city (specifically London). I have a daughter about ten years younger and Stewart's worries and view of the world and her experiences do remind me of the worries and heartwrench I feel for my daughter, out in this messed up world; unfortunately I think I have less optimism than Lizzy Stewart...

[mia · Rating 3 out of 5]

felt like it would have been more suited to 30 yr olds and better read 10 years ago, the ideas seemed a little underdeveloped and like she was just sticking some stuff in to seem politically correct, idk

[Helen Leigh-Phippard · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely love this book. It’s honest, refreshing and beautifully melancholic. The prose and the illustrations are superb and it speaks to me at every level, but especially when I recall earlier lives as a young woman living in London and New York. Wonderful.

[Jana M · Rating 5 out of 5]

A gorgeously drawn meditation by a 30-year-old single woman asking herself basically, "Am I doing life right?" I loved it.

[Sonaksha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed the format of these short interconnected meditations on walking. Love Lizzy's art, so loved seeing them come together in this way. <3

[Marko8 · Rating 5 out of 5]

I felt that this is a melancholic, but warm graphic novel of a woman and artist at the beginning of her 30s.

I loved the water color paintings and the honesty of her thoughts. Would recommend.

[Mariana Mas Books · Rating 3 out of 5]

Shorty September 1/12

[Laura H · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful illustrations, a perfect and inspiring little read for me today

[Dennis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderfully ordinary and thought provoking, about simple things

[Ekaterina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hauntingly relatable. As usual.

[Rebecca · Rating 5 out of 5]

yep, I feel ya girl