The vivid scenes on the Bayeux Tapestry depict the events leading up to the Battle of Hastings in 1066. It is one of Europe's greatest treasures and its own story is full of drama and surprise. Who commissioned the tapestry? Was it Bishop Odo, William's ruthless half-brother? Or Harold's dynamic sister Edith, juggling for a place in the new court? Hicks shows us this world and the miracle of the tapestry's making: the stitches, dyes and strange details in the margins. For centuries, it lay ignored in Bayeux cathedral until its 'discovery' in the eighteenth century. It became a symbol of power as well as art: townsfolk saved it during the French Revolution; Napoleon displayed it to promote his own conquest; the Nazis strove to make it their own; and its influence endures today. 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.

About the Author

The Bayeux Tapestry has been a constant fascination throughout Carola Hicks's career.She studied archaeology and art history at Edinburgh University, and then went on to write her PhD thesis on animal decorations in medieval art, including the Bayeux Tapestry. Later, as a research fellow at Cambridge University, she began to look at how Christian art adopted pagan animal themes, and wrote her first book, Animals in Early Medieval Art. When she was Curator of the Stained Glass Museum at Ely, she wrote Discovering Stained Glass. The reception of women's art has become a major interest for her, and in 2001 she wrote the acclaimed Improper Pursuits, a biography of the eighteenth-century artist and designer Lady Di Beauclerk. Carola is now Director of Studies at Newnham College, Cambridge.

Prizes

The story of the Bayeux Tapestry - its origins and making, but also its long and dramatic afterlife, from 1066 to Napoleon, Nazi raids and modern adverts

Reviews

" I was bowled over... It is a book full of page-turning vignettes."
- Simon Young, "Sunday Telegraph"