This piece was first published in issue twenty-seven. You can buy the issue here or subscribe here.

Jessie Cave is a Swiss Army knife. No, I don’t mean that she keeps a corkscrew in her pocket and tweezers behind her ear. She’s multi-skilled, being an illustrator, actor, comedian. Such creative adroitness could easily be cause for dribble-inducing levels of professional jealousy, but she wears her talents lightly and has a well-developed sense of humour.

That much was evident as I prepared for our interview and scanned her Instagram profile. It’s the place where she posts comic doodles and pictures of her months-old son, and she’s gained a loyal gaggle of followers. A recent upload was an image of herself on the set of the British TV drama, The Midwife, in-character and in-costume as the heavily-pregnant mum-to-be of sextuplets.

The internet did not quite break as such, but in the microcosm of Harry Potter fandom, there was a minor tremor. You see, Jessie Cave played Lavender Brown in the Harry Potter franchise and, scrolling down through the post’s comments, it was clear that many still identified her as the swotty, pure-blood witch who was girlfriend to Ron Weasley. Ron and Lavender were having babies? Six of them?

Let it be known that I consider it an occupational hazard to make assumptions about anyone based on their Instagram feed, but in person Jessie Cave is every bit as grounded and honest as you’d want a comic artist to be. Especially one who doodles about break-ups and lonely hearts. For we were meeting to talk over her first book, Love Sick, which is a collection of 120 doodles made over the past five years. All of them were first published on Twitter; most are drawn from personal experience.

Creating daily doodles on social media helped to motivate Jessie’s creative process in the context of a burgeoning acting and comedy career. These snapshot, chatty drawings are indebted to the fast-paced global conversation of social feeds. Jessie’s drawings present a concise, simple rendering of her lovesick characters. She’s attentive to the odd bits of fashion detailing—cuffs, collars, and brightly coloured coats.

The book explores the segments of a relationship, taking us on an acerbically-funny ride from pining, dating, unrequited loving, being in a relationship, through to the break up. “It’s quite a realistic and sad outlook on love,” as Jessie put it to me, already setting her sights on a follow-up book that covers the happy settled relationship she’s now in. Let’s face it, nothing beats a real-life happy ending.

Your drawings have a bold, cartoon style. How did that develop? When I studied illustration and animation I was told I couldn’t draw! I just wanted to doodle and wasn’t interested in doing life drawing. Hopefully the colour and childishness is a good contrast to the slightly sarcastic, unexpected dialogue. The dialogue is more important than the drawing.

The drawings in Love Sick started life as daily doodles, posted on Twitter. Have you always felt okay about sharing details from your personal life online? I’m just really honest and I think it’s important to be. In my comedy show at Edinburgh this year, I list a whole load of confessions. Stuff about sex and honesty. I won’t repeat them here because they’re a bit gross. I like it when people in the public eye are honest, but what people do on Twitter and Instagram is nothing like what they do in real life. I know how I seem on social media, but I’m nowhere near as confident or bold. It’s really important to remember that. People might seem to be having a crazy good time, but actually they’re on Instagram.

The internet has a long memory. I’ve noticed that people still call you Lavender online, after your role in the Harry Potter franchise. There’s a big following. I really like meeting the Harry Potter fans because I feel their keenness, their awe of this magical world. I can relate to that quite a lot. In a weird way, I’m probably prone to fandom.

Do you think you’re typecast to play similar characters to Lavender Brown because that role was so high profile? Lavender is dislikeable, but I made her real. I’ve realised lately that my forte is to play the most annoying character. Hopefully the reason I get the parts is because I make them quite real. I get all the shit parts, but I make something about them redeemable! I’m innately desperate as a person, so I feel like that must come across in the room so I get desperate parts. I’m quite happy to be desperate. I’m doing a series at the moment called Trollied, which is set in a supermarket. It’s my dream because I just love supermarkets.

What is it that you love about them? Supermarkets to me are this sort of temptation. I could dream about world peace but instead I dream about walking down the cereal aisle and putting anything in the basket. My drug is thinking about sugar or cereal. Being pregnant and having a baby, food became something different to me. Suddenly food was something nurturing. It was such a relief, and with breastfeeding and stuff, something just went off in my brain and I realised, “Oh, I’m the only one who wants me to be skinny.” Then suddenly I didn’t actually really care. Bodies are for different things now, and it’s a massive relief.

How has having a child affected your work, both acting and the drawing? It makes you appreciate working. Being freelance, I had time and freedom, but I couldn’t actually get any work done. It filters into the stuff I used to do all the time, like Twitter. I’m still on it, but now I do all my internet stalking in two minutes!

I don’t think children are seen enough in public life. There seems to be no place for them in the world of work. Yes, I’ve never thought of that. There should be more kids hanging around. In the early stages it’s quite lonely being inside with a baby. You feel like you can’t go out to places in case the baby screams. I’m getting brave at doing that. And I feel like I’ve got a different perspective on being a young mum. If I didn’t feel like I had something to say, I wouldn’t do it.

The illustrations are from Love Sick, which is out now published by Ebury Press. Jessie Cave / pindippy.com

read more stories