Stitches & Stories is a new concept book group for 2023. It is a collaboration between Jo from The Bobbin Sisters (Backfold, Hay-on-Wye) and Jules at North Books. We thought a book group of crafters who sit and discuss books while they work alongside each other would be rather fun. Jo takes the credit for coming up with the first five textile-themed books.

The group meets on the third Thursday of every alternate month from 4pm to 6pm, and refreshments will be included.

Bring a stitching project with you and don’t forget to read the book in advance! See below.

JOIN THE CLUB

The book club meetings are seated events, so places are limited, and the first event was at capacity. Please email Jules on jules@northbooks.co.uk or pop into Jo’s shop - Bobbin Sisters in Backfold, Hay to add your name to the waiting list. Participation costs £5 (or is free if the book is purchased in advance from North Books at a 10% discount).

At North Books, 4 Castle Street, Hay-on-Wye on Thursday 15 June, 4–6pm.

THE BOOK

Our third novel up for discussion on Thursday 14 June is Threads of Life by Clare Hunter.

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.