On the Beat

2 years ago, Bishop’s Stortford museum discovered police records that dated back to the mid eighteenth century. Initially the nature of the archives presented a challenge but the students on the illustration course at Middlesex have been working on several projects involving the graphic novel format and this seemed to be a perfect solution. The subsequent book, animation and exhibition are a result of this collaboration between the museum and the illustration course. The project caught the attention of major institutions such as the BBC and the Times newspaper and we received good press coverage from both. The students have benefited enormously from the collaboration. A live brief with tough and challenging material to work from, it has demanded respect and integrity due to its subject matter and the fact that these are original police records relating to real people suffering the trauma’s of the First World War