The vivid scenes on the thin, 70-metre long linen strip of the Bayeux Tapestry depict the events leading up to the Battle of Hastings in 1066 when William the Conqueror seized the English throne. One of Europe's greatest treasures, it tells a magnificent tale - but as Carola Hicks shows, its own story has been just as dramatic and surprising.
From the start there are mysteries and controversies. Who commissionedthe tapestry? Was it Bishop Odo, William's ruthless half-brother? Or anotherambitious lord? Or was it Harold's dynamic sister Edith, widow of Edward the Confessor, juggling for a place in the new court?Hicks makes an entirely new, strong case for Edith, showing us her world and the miracle of the tapestry's making: talented women in convents plying their needles, the stitches and dyes, the strange details in the margins.The tapestry moved from a noble court to Bayeux cathedral where it lay dusty and ignored until its 'discovery' in the eighteenth century, rousing fierce disputes between British and French antiquarians. In the French Revolution, the townsfolk narrowly saved it from destruction, while Napoleon displayed it in Paristo boost his own planned conquest. Nineteenth-century women claimed it as 'female' history, to the horror of male historians. In the twentieth century it was swept up in the breathtaking struggle with the Nazis and since then its immediately recognisable images have inspired films, novels, political cartoons and adverts - even today, itacts as shorthand for our long rivalry with France.
This marvellous book, packed with thrilling stories, shows how we remake history in every age and how a great work of art has a life of its own, enduring every storm.
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"compelling and her style confident and writerly" Daily Telegraph` -- Daily Mail
"a lightness of touch and a depth of knowledge which is second to none...A captivating work of poplar history" -- Glasgow Herald
"a perceptive and sure-footed guide. ...fascinating tale with deftest of touches" -- Guardian
Carola Hick’s scholarly book is a masterly account of its origins and the controversies that have always surrounded it -- The Spectator,
‘Well written, well documented...weaves its own spell.’ -- TLS
"a fittingly meticulous tribute"
Daily Mail"
"a perceptive and sure-footed guide. ...fascinating tale with deftest of touches" Guardian
"What is it made of? Is it accurate? How long is it? Where is it now? Carola Hicks answers all these questions and raises many more in her enthralling account...Hicks makes us long to see it." Independent
"a lightness of touch and a depth of knowledge which is second to none...A captivating work of poplar history" Glasgow Herald"
"compelling and her style confident and writerly" Daily Telegraph`
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