Book review: Threads of Life, by Clare Hunter
Hello everyone! Here's something different from me today, a book review. I was given Threads of Life, by Clare Hunter (Sceptre, 2019) as a Christmas present from my mother and I have just finished reading and feel like writing about it. Before I get into the detail, I would like to start by saying it is brilliant to see a book like this. So much of textile history takes an art historical or industrial history view if the subject, and it is marvellous to see an unashamedly sociological and humanising take. This is an ambitious book, looking at the social, emotional and community aspects of textiles throughout history, with a particular focus on embroidery. But why, oh why, does this book not have any pictures? Who on earth thought it was a respectful treatment of a discussion of visual material to not have even a single plate? I had to read it with my phone out, ready to do Google image searches of the textiles described, where possible. Aside from this obvious defic