Latest news with #TheBeano
Irish Independent
04-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Independent
Illustrated stories, comics and flights of imagination for the young and the still young at heart
As someone who drew almost as much as I wrote throughout childhood, I always had a fondness for comics and comic books, from younger-kid weeklies like The Beano and Roy of the Rovers, to teen-appropriate periodicals such as Batman or Judge Dredd to more adult fare (distinguished as 'graphic novels') including Watchmen, From Hell and Wild Palms.
Daily Mirror
02-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
'Dyslexia made me feel worthless at school - but it's been a superpower'
Successful businesswoman and author Maddy-Alexander Grout was reduced to tears as a schoolgirl struggling with dyslexia. Having put her shame behind her, Maddy now embraces her differences and is showing support for Jamie Oliver's important new campaign Much like Jamie Oliver, Maddy-Alexander Grout does not look back on her schooldays with much affection. Similarly to Jamie, Maddy had to navigate school life with dyslexia, which saw her unfairly labelled as "stupid" and "slow". Now 41, successful businesswoman and author Maddy has painful memories of crying during spelling tests, and remembers how, even though the words were potentially spelt correctly, "the letters were around the wrong way". Initially, Maddy's teacher believed her difficulties reading from the board were due to short-sightedness, and so she was given a pair of glasses she didn't even need. Maddy, from Southampton, laughingly admitted: "I fudged the test because I wanted to wear them." At the age of six, Maddy was diagnosed with dyslexia, a widely misunderstood learning difference that affects a person's reading, writing, and spelling abilities. As a creative child, Maddy loved drawing, painting and reading, and had a particular love of comics such as The Beano and The Dandy. However, visual learner Maddy found she read in a "different way" from her peers, reading quickly but then having to go back and re-read certain parts. Reading aloud in front of the class was also a nightmare. Maddy told the Mirror: "I used to get filled with absolute dread when the teacher at school used to make you stand up and read in front of the class. I'd always stumble over my words and repeat words or miss words out, and I used to get told off for it, and kind of ashamed." In his one-hour Channel 4 documentary, Jamie's Dyslexia Revolution, the TV chef opens up about the challenges he faced as a pupil with dyslexia, pushing for early screenings and better neurodiversity awareness. Speaking with The Sunday Times, Jamie shared that making the doc had been the "most viscerally painful" thing he's ever done, reflecting: "I've seen so many high-flying, talented, grown men cry about this — I've just done it to you — the concept of being worthless (when you're) young is real. It's really triggering." This is something Maddy can relate to all too well. She shared: "I wasn't supported in the right way. I think with the right support, people who are divergent—and you know, that includes dyslexia—can really thrive. So what Jamie is doing to raise awareness is absolutely incredible. I can really relate to how he felt at school because there were times when I felt like that." Following her initial diagnosis, Maddy switched schools as she wasn't getting the help she so desperately needed. She liked her next teacher, who helped her to "thrive", but this was far from the end of her difficulties. In high school, Maddy received external support from an English coach, but didn't receive any extra exam time or other means of assistance now available for pupils who are dyslexic. Maddy recalled: "I remember this one English class being asked to read something from Romeo and Juliet, and I think I actually even got one of the main characters' names wrong. I think I called him something else that was not even in the book, and it was just like, 'Where did that come from? ' "But it was really hard, you know, imagine like standing up in front of 30 people, knowing that you're gonna get it wrong, like that's it, it's scarring, and it does stay with you as a child." Outside of academics, socialising was also a struggle. As a youngster, Maddy suffered the cruelties of being picked on, and also struggled when it came to making friends, "smothering" those she did get close to. At that time, Maddy hadn't yet been diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), a condition which often coexists with dyslexia. This common link is something that Maddy, who now works as an ADHD money and business coach, is keen to draw attention to. Looking back with a far better understanding of herself, Maddy now knows there was never anything wrong with her, aware that learning in a neurotypical setting was just a case of trying to "put a CD in a tape player". Considering what she'd say to her younger self, Maddy said: "Believe in yourself, you're not broken, you're just different." Although Maddy is comfortable in her own skin now, it's been a long journey to get there. From her early to late teens, Maddy felt "completely and utterly useless". Her ADHD also affected the way Maddy dealt with money, landing her in £40,000 worth of debt. She was thankfully able to pay this hefty sum off, using self-taught "tips and tricks", which she discusses in her ADHD-focused finance book, Mad About Money. Indeed, as well as accepting her differences, Maddy has learned to embrace them and is eager to show that there are many benefits to having dyslexia and ADHD, which aren't talked about enough. Highlighting how those with dyslexia can often be "really strategic thinkers" and excellent storytellers, Maddy remarked that "lots of dyslexic people go on to be really good entrepreneurs." Pointing at the prime example of Jamie, Maddy noted: "I mean, Jamie Oliver is an incredible entrepreneur. He's not just a chef, he's somebody who is actually going out there and telling his story and changing lives, and that's what I wanted to do with my book. "I think there is a common misconception that dyslexic people are not very clever when actually we are really clever, we just have different brains that process things in a different way." Jamie has spoken out about how entering the kitchen "saved" him, allowing him to carve a path for himself after feeling alienated by the traditional school system. For Maddy, this lifeline was public speaking, a talent which has allowed her to find her voice and speak up for others navigating similar journeys, through channels such as her Mad About Money podcast. Nowadays, Maddy is happy to "show up imperfectly" and encourages others to learn more about their brains so that they can show up as the person they're meant to be. She's also cautioned against shame, urging others to see the strengths in their "different operating systems " instead of flaws. Maddy is now mum to Ben, 10, and Harriet, 6, both of whom have dyslexia. Although she's seen improvements in how dyslexia is handled in modern schools, she believes there's still some way to go. Expressing her wishes for the future, Maddy continued: "I want there to be more education for children. Not just education for children who are dyslexic, but I'd like to see education for all children in school about what dyslexia actually is, so that they don't bully their friends, or they don't have negative conversations or call people stupid. "I want people to actually be talking about the positives about dyslexia as well because I think that's something that's not done enough. I think you need more people who have dyslexia who are successful at speaking in schools. I think that would be a really good thing to show people that you can achieve things and not to see yourself as negative." You can catch Jamie's Dyslexia Revolution on Channel 4 at 9 pm on June 9.
Irish Examiner
29-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Examiner
John Patrick McHugh: 10 of the books that have influenced me through the years
Beano Let me cheat with the first selection: not a book but a humble comic. My earliest memory of reading was with the Beano. The Beano. I remember laying on my stomach while riffling through its pages, giggling and feeling as if I was catching up with friends in Denis and Gnasher, the Bash Street Kids. There was a cosiness to this experience, a safety, but it was also my first sense of interiority: here was an experience for me alone amid the noise of family, here was something that let me be in on the joke rather than my parents. Additionally: I probably owe my refined sense of humour to this magazine. Western Lane by Chetna Maroo My novel is a sports book, kind of – a distinction that still surprises – and when writing it, I hoped that the GAA side of it would feel integral to the emotional side: the football was not the thing itself but part of the overall package. This balance is handled deftly in non-fiction – Dunphy's Only A Game springs to mind – but rarer to find in fiction, and for that reason and more, Western Lane is a rare triumph. It is about grief, family and the racketed sport of squash: elements that all work together, enhance the other. A kind of sport book that gave me confidence in writing my own kind of sport book. Dubliners by James Joyce I feel like we all have those moments in our lives when suddenly something makes sense that didn't a moment before. For me this occurred upon reading Araby in Dubliners. I was eighteen. I was unsure about what I was doing in college, unaware of literature at large, and in my first week I was handed this story. I read it and I saw myself – my skin glowed when I played outside and how did Joyce know that?! – and I saw what writing can do. A door had been opened inside me, and it was a door I didn't know was there, nevermind that it had been locked. It's not hyperbolic to say this book changed my life. Sabbath's Theater by Philip Roth Tonnes of books are labelled brave these days but most of them, I feel, are not brave at all. Often, they read as if sculpted for our time: a chorus for the agreed. Noble and worthy, but not brave. A brave book, for me, should rally against the accepted, should feel wrong. Sabbath's Theater is a brave book. It's a twisted love story about a disgraced puppeteer and his affair with a married woman. It is a novel that astounds because Roth wrote it so late in the game and yet here is throwing everything at us. Rude, outrageous, ambitious and it houses the most romantic scene in literature involving the remembrance of urolagnia. Running Dog by Don DeLillo DeLillo: is there another cultural figure who has been more prescient about our modern world? Indeed, is there a writer alive better? The guy has authored too many bangers – The Names, Mao II, Libra – so I have gone for a book I feel is underappreciated (even by the man himself): Running Dog. It's about the hunt for a sex tape filmed by Hitler in his bunker in Berlin. It has all the DeLillo trademarks – those sentences, that dialogue as if it is off its axis – and what is especially haunting about this one is the eventual reveal of the 'sex' tape: shocking and humanising, a scene that will linger in the reader's mind. Amongst Women by John McGahern McGahern arrived to me after Joyce and shaped my writing to the point I had to forgot about him: his influence was sticky on my stories, Yew trees kept cropping up. I returned to him in the course of writing my novel, and I have been captivated all over again by this great work in particular. The story follows the brutal patriarch, Moran, and the shadow Moran casts on the lives of his daughters. I have gone to town on my copy of the novel – underlying entire passages, dismantling scenes – in my attempt to answer the almighty question: how does McGahern make the everyday rhythms of country life hook you like a thriller? Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel A novel set in Tudor times about a clerk and his sudden professional ascension should read dry, it should feel worn and dusty, and yet Mantel's trilogy about Thomas Cromwell is a whirlwind: invigorating, discombobulating, thrilling. We are in Cromwell's scheming mind, we are in the present moment, we are in the court of King Henry as men tug fortune their way while seeking to maintain their heads. It's a drama, it's a character study, it's a historical document, it's a modern novel set in the past. By the close of the third one, I was hoping against hope that Cromwell might slip free from the net of history. Happiness, As Such by Natalia Ginzburg The best book recommendations come in two emotional states: one, when the recommender has drink taken, and two, when they haven't even finished the book yet and still are compelled to gush: this second option occurred when a friend emailed me about Natalia Ginzburg and her genius. To read Ginzburg is to read someone who can see-through the world: who can present the essence of you and I. I adore her sentences, their conversational and stylish nature, and I have picked Happiness, As Such, but honestly, you can't go wrong with any Ginzburg. A remarkable individual besides being a remarkable writer: her struggle against a fascist Italian state could be as influential as her writing soon enough. The Ambassadors by Henry James I had never read James beyond a story or two, and at the start of this year, I set out to rectify this glaring omission by reading The Ambassadors: and yeah, I get it now. It's the turn of the 20th century and Lambert Strether is shipped from America to Paris by his soon-to-be-wife to check in on her delightfully named son, Chad – for suspicions abound about Chad and women. Look, no point fooling you: it is an intimidating book to read, but once you wade knees-deep into James's dense and playful style, something will click, and the novel will begin to flow brilliantly. And big surprise: Henry James is hilarious. Enter Ghost by Isabelle Hammad Here is an intelligent and artful book that is proof that the novel as a form still has something to add in this age of screens and disinformation: for here is our real world politics on stage, here is modern history made digestible. Our narrator is a Palestinian actress returning to Haifa and who subsequently joins up with a ragtag band scheming to stage the play Hamlet in the West Bank. What could go wrong? And what could easily and justly be a fiery polemic is instead an exquisitely crafted novel about family, displacement, resilient and grave injustice and repression. Timely is a descriptor that is batted about too much, but in this case... Fun and Games, by John Patrick McHugh, published by 4th Estate, is out now
The Independent
24-03-2025
- Business
- The Independent
UK comic book giants join forces to tackle threat of AI
Publishers behind UK comics, including The Beano, are among the founding members of a new trade association hoping to tackle threats posed by generative AI. Comic Book UK has been formed to play a key part in the Government's industrial strategy and drive growth in the country's comic book industry. It comes following a Government consultation that included proposals that would allow tech firms to use copyrighted material from creatives and publishers without having to pay, gain a licence, or reimburse creatives for using their work. It would require artists to actively choose to opt out – something they say is overly burdensome on them. It has been widely condemned by high-profile figures in the creative sector, including musicians such as Sir Elton John, Annie Lennox, Sir Paul McCartney and Kate Bush, who say the Government's plans to make it easier for AI models to be trained on copyrighted material amount to the theft of music and will severely affect the sector. In February, the Prime Minister said responses to a consultation on the proposals were being reviewed. Powerful AI models need large amounts of data to be trained on to produce the responses seen in their final products, with many having already used data lifted from the open web to train their models. Comic Book UK said it is looking to play 'a constructive role in debates around regulation of generative AI, ensuring that the value of UK comic companies' intellectual property is maintained within a regime that supports innovation'. Alongside The Beano publisher DC Thomson, the association's founding members include graphic novel publisher Avery Hill Publishing and drama production house B7 Media. Mark Fuller, Comic Book UK chief executive, said: 'Comics are one of the jewels in the crown of the UK's creative industries and there is enormous untapped potential for further growth. 'We have the creative talent and business base to become a global comics superpower, with UK companies growing and expanding their reach into new territories alongside inward investment from the huge North American, Asian Pacific and European comic industries. 'Comic Book UK will provide the cross-industry representation and support needed to unlock this potential.' Creative industries minister, Sir Chris Bryant, said: 'With an edgy history from Punch to 2000 AD, British comics and cartooning entertain millions globally as part of our £11 billion publishing sector, rightly earning their place and undeniable influence among the best of the UK's creative industries. 'It is only right that comics have their own advocate to help champion and unlock more investment in this innovative sector. 'I look forward to working with Comic Book UK as we develop our plan to boost our growth-driving industries even further.' Further members of Comic Book UK will be announced over the coming months, including a range of independent UK comic publishers.
