Edie Medley illustrates the conversations she overhears while working in a pub

It’s a situation many will know well. You’re at your local pub with your pals and you’re a few pints in – your tongue is getting looser, and the conversation sillier. The cocoon of alcohol, chairs pulled in close proximity and low lighting can make it feel like you’re in your own little world. But, as it turns out, your chats might not be as private as you think…

Edie Medley is an illustrator who, alongside freelance illustration projects, works part time as a manager at a pub, and she’s been drawing up the conversations she hears while on the job. “Being behind the bar is the perfect place to quietly observe, there are so many different interactions happening around you; friends who haven’t seen each other in a while, groups who meet at the same time every day, first dates, etc,” she says. “Honestly, when you’re pulling pints or collecting glasses and people are sitting there chatting, it’s difficult not to tune in.”

It was one particular conversation that first sparked the idea for I’m Not Listening. When in a pub garden, Edie overheard an argument which culminated in someone throwing their drink over a man, to which he indignantly (and hilariously) replied “well this is Gore-Tex, so the joke’s on you sweetheart. It’s waterproof!”. From that point onward, Edie kept her ear out for one-liners, swiftly noting them down in her trusty phone notes app, titled ‘overheard compiled’. “I had to organise it recently because they were all over the place, mixed up with my to-do lists and recipes,” she says.

Having worked in a fair few pubs over the years, Edie’s built up a healthy bank of faces and characters that crop up in her drawings, and there’s something about Edie’s specific way of capturing people that makes each conversation so characterful. With her facial formula of stuck on noses and conjoined eyes she manages to create a range of expressions, from shock and smugness to enrapture and warmth, and the humanity of her characters is accentuated by the little details she incorporates from people’s fashion – a spotted top, a skirt over trousers, a curly mass of hair pulled back into a bobble, a tattoo on someone’s upper arm. When finally paired with the snippets of chat about astrology, Chat GPT, ‘chicken wine’ and phone usage, the pieces become a relatable and highly specific time capsule of social life in 2025.

As the saying goes, ‘life is a tapestry’, and the array of conversations Edie overhears range from the silly and mundane to the significant, and maybe even life-shattering. Many Edie recognises in the same lighthearted natters she has with her friends. One of her favourites stars a figure saying ‘I was being a bit of a bitch’, to which her friend replies ‘It is a full moon tonight in all fairness’. But one piece recalls an overheard conversation in which one party was “clearly considering breaking up with his long-term girlfriend”, who, to Edie’s dismay then turned up. “He was kissing her hello, and I was thinking, she has no clue what’s going on… I definitely shouldn’t have heard that one.”

While it may not be the main intention of the project, there’s also something reassuring about Edie’s project – it’s honest about the fact that many creatives (especially early on in their career) have to fund their work with jobs in other industries. The project also proves that, in fact, ‘non-creative’ work might not always be a drain on your vision. “I’ve been working in hospitality on and off for years to support my illustration work,” says Edie. “I’ve not always enjoyed it, but I’ve always made work about it – it feels satisfying to come away from a long shift and turn it into something creative.”

The project has flipped Edie’s mindset, and also helped her recognise just how important pubs are – as are the people who work in them. “By seeing the customers as inspiration, it made a shift at the pub feel like research for a project; I’m cycling in thinking ‘I wonder what I will hear today!’ instead of thinking ‘I’ve got to go and clean the cellar and maybe deal with some difficult customers’,” she ends. “I’ve made countless comics on what I don’t enjoy about working in hospitality, but I’ve loved working on this project because it celebrates the pub as a space for conversation and community. We need the pub!” Who knows? Your next inane and slightly inebriated conversation might soon be on Edie’s notes app…