I hail the law formed to serve the strong. In vain we argue rail and chide (Lucy Aitken)

Stonehenge is the location where single mother Tess Of The Durbervilles is arrested, for crimes which were forced on her by circumstance. As I walked this embroidery…

(A traveller) weary toil subdued, I reached a country strange and rude (Matilda Betton)

The rest of this quote (which I didnt have time to embroider) is “and trembled, lest, approaching eve, my thoughts of shelter should decieve”. I think it captures the…

Happily we cannot shape the mountain to our fancy (Dorothy Wordsworth)

Dorothy Wordsworth was not a biological mother, but she mothered. I admire her not only for her brilliant writing (overshadowed and sometimes appropriated by her…

Thou steered them wrong thou helmsman vile (Mary Howitt)

I embroidered this on a slag heap, next to a closed coal mine which is now a tourist attraction. South Wales registered a “Leave” vote in the referendum. I struggled to…

Thinks thou Britain still to rest at ease (an island Queen amidst thy subject seas). (Laetitia Barbauld)

Langdale is stunning. If you were making a political broadcast with a nationalist agenda, you’d use it to show what needs defending against those marauding hordes…

In this sea fenced isle survey scenes to make the sick heart shudder. (Charlotte Smith)

Elgar, the composer of “Pomp and Circumstance” (from which this famous lyric is taken) was born nearby.

What is Empire? The privilege to punish and enjoy and think ourselves immortal (Hannah More)

I embroidered this using a lighthouse and naval statues as landmarks. It was early in the morning, and apart from the dog-walkers, the only other person I encountered…

Advancing clouds from every point of heaven brood aloft o’er the enpurpled earth (Johanna Baillie)

I like places where you can see where you are in the world. From here you can see Glastonbury Tor and Wales. It gives you a sense of the bigger picture.

The cottages of England! Fearless there the lowly sleep. (Felicity Homans)

There is a working watermill here, swans in the ford and little bridges over the stream. It looks like a Constable painting, or a location for a period drama. The average house…

People are almost always better than their neighbours think they are (George Eliot)

Alexandra park is cut in half by a “peace wall”, the gate to which is closed every night. Starting on one side and ending on the other, I embroidered this the day Trump…

The fiend of discord sits in savage triumph (mocking every plea of policy and justice). (Charlotte Smith)

In summer 2020, having checked my eyesight, I made a trip to Barnard Castle. The newspaper headlines were full of political infighting, the town was busy...

It is impossible to degrade our companion without degrading our self (Lucy Aitken)

“On Ilkley Moor bah tat” means “On Ilkley Moor without a hat”. Whenever I’ve heard the song it’s sung as a stereotype of the Stoic Northerner...