Threads of Life

A History of the World Through the Eye of a Needle

By: Clare Hunter

Narrated by: Siobhan Redmond

A globe-spanning history of sewing, embroidery, and the people who have used a needle and thread to make their voices heard.

From the political propaganda of the Bayeux Tapestry, World War I soldiers coping with PTSD, and the maps sewn by schoolgirls in the New World, to the AIDS quilt, Hmong story clothes, and pink pussyhats, women and men have used the language of sewing to make their voices heard, even in the most desperate of circumstances.

Threads of Life is a chronicle of identity, protest, memory, power, and politics told through the stories of needlework. Clare Hunter, master of the craft, threads her own narrative as she takes us over centuries and across continents - from medieval France to contemporary Mexico and the United States, and from a POW camp in Singapore to a family attic in Scotland - to celebrate the age-old, universal, and underexplored beauty and power of sewing. Threads of Life is an evocative and moving book about the need we have to tell our story.

©2019 Clare Hunter (P)2021 Tantor

Brilliant perspective and delivery

I had to buy a hard copy of the book because there’s so much intriguing and tantalizing information that I want to go deeper into. Great stories.

Loved it

Such a phenomenal book for everyone interested in the hidden world of women in the past. Such an amazing find. Made me realise how powerful needle and threads have been in the shaping of our past. Truly blessed to have found this book.

Loved this book

This book was super engaging and full of useful information about the untold and unrecorded history of women’s needle art and sewing. A must read

If you sew you know

This scholarly celebration of needle arts, particularly embroidery, covers the globe. While centered in the author's home territory of Scotland she explores textile traditions from China and SouthEast Asia to Africa to Central and South America and the heartland of the United States.
The narrator's perfectly paced performance is easy listening.
The narration faded toward the end but that may have been my device.

Fantastic

Shows the importance of sowing both in the past and present and explains how it often gets overlooked since it is women’s work.