The Bodyguard Unit: Edith Garrud, Women’s Suffrage, and Jujitsu is the engagingly told story of a lesser-known figure from an important part of 20th century history, Edith Garrud. A 2024 GLLI Translated YA Book Prize Honor Book, this superb nonfiction graphic novel connects the dots between women’s suffrage, their personal freedom, and their ability to defend themselves.

In the early 20^th century, women in the U.S. and the U.K. could not vote. Their autonomy and their rights were subjugated to their husbands, whose permission they needed for most activities–the same husbands who surprisingly often weren’t above a spot of domestic abuse. In the 1910s, the struggle for women’s rights in the U.K. turned vicious, with those who sought women’s suffrage subjected to police brutality, violent retaliation, and judicial retribution.

Enter Edith Garrud.

With her husband William, Garrud ran a jujitsu dojo and was one of the first women to teach martial arts in the U.K. At the request of Emmeline Pankhurst, founder of the suffragette Women’s Social and Political Social Union, Garrud trained the members how to defend themselves. It was a game-changer.

A fabulous look into a fascinating, forgotten corner of better-known history, The Bodyguard Unit is as empowering for its readers as Edith Garrud’s jujitsu lessons empowered the British suffragettes of her day. And it’s a timely reminder to 21^st century women of how hard-fought those rights that we take for granted today are, lest we forget to cherish and guard them.

The Bodyguard Unit: Edith Garrud, Women’s Suffrage, and Jujitsu
Written by  Clément Xavier; illustrated by Lisa Lugrin
Translated from the French by Edward Gauvin
ISBN: 978-1728445656
2023, Graphic Universe

Awards: 2024 GLLI Translated YA Book Prize Honor Book, 2024 Texas Maverick Graphic Novels Reading List, 2024 YALSA Great Graphic Novels for Teen, 2024 Bank Street College of Education Best Children’s Books of the Year, 2024 Excellence in Graphic Literature Finalist, 2023 New York Public LIbrary Best New Comics for Adults

Reviews: Publishers Weekly, Kirkus

You can buy a copy here* or find it at a library.

*Book purchases made via our affiliate link may earn GLLI a small commission at no cost to you.

Award-winning opera singer Nanette McGuinness is the translator of over 100 books and graphic novels for children and adults from French, Italian, German and Spanish into English, including the much-loved Geronimo Stilton Graphic Novels, as well as Tiki: A Very Ruff Year (nominated for the 2023 Eisner and Harvey Awards) and Alice on the Run: One Child’s Journey Through the Rwandan Civil War (2023 GLLI YA Translated Book Prize Honor Book, 2023 Mosaic Prize winner, 2023 Excellence in Graphic Literature Finalist and 2023 Harvey Award nominee). Accolades have also gone to her translations of Magical History Tour: Vikings and of Magical History Tour: Gandhi (both 2023 Excellence in Graphic Literature Finalists), Luisa: Now and Then (2019 Stonewall Honor Book; 2020 GLLI YA Translated Honor Book; YALSA’s Great Graphic Novels for Teens in 2019) and California Dreamin’: Cass Elliot Before the Mamas & the Papas (2018 Harvey Award; YALSA’s Great Graphic Novels for Teens in 2018).