In the Studio

Almost a thousand years ago a small group of English women came together to stitch the story of the lead-up to the Norman invasion of their homeland onto linen - creating the Bayeux Tapestry. The epic work depicts King Harold at the Battle of Hastings in 1066 - surely the most famous date in English history – as he’s fatally injured by an arrow in his eye. The Tapestry has been in France since it was created – but thanks to intense efforts involving President Emmanuel Macron and King Charles III, it has now returned to London under cover of darkness in a shock-absorbing case so that it can be displayed at the British Museum for a year.
For In the Studio Julian May tells the story of its safe return and the preparation for what promises to be a blockbuster exhibition: a million people are expected to come and see it. In the dimly-lit gallery he watches while the condition of sections of the Tapestry is checked, where it lies flat in its new custom-built, temperature-controlled case. He witnesses how a millennium after a small group of expert needlewomen embroidered history into nine panels of linen with coloured woollen thread, a small group of skilled curators – all women too – are nurturing their work. Theirs is a sisterhood stretching over 70 metres of embroidered cloth – and a thousand years.