Patch Work: WINNER OF THE 2021 PEN ACKERLEY PRIZE
£9.40
WINNER OF THE 2021 PEN ACKERLEY PRIZE
‘A strange and mesmerising piece of work’ Sunday Times
‘An absolute masterpiece’ Laura Cumming
‘An uncommon delight’ Observer
Claire Wilcox has been a curator of fashion at the Victoria and Albert Museum for most of her working life. In Patch Work, she turns her curator’s eye to the fabric of life itself, tugging at the threads of memory: a cardigan worn by a child, a tin button box, the draping of a curtain, a pair of cycling shorts, a roll of lace, a pin hidden in a seam. Through these intimate and compelling close-ups, we see how the stories and the secrets of clothes measure out the passage of time, our gains and losses, and the way we use them to unravel and write our histories.
‘Effervescent, poetic, puzzle-like … Wilcox picks at the heartstrings’ Financial Times
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Additional information
| Publisher | Bloomsbury Publishing (27 May 2021) |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Paperback | 288 pages |
| ISBN-10 | 1526614413 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-1526614414 |
| Dimensions | 12.83 x 2.54 x 19.69 cm |
by A. Souter
This is a stunningly beautiful book, with words like jewels – totally absorbing. I’d love to read more writing by this author.
by AnnR
I don’t like giving negative reviews but I felt I had to on this occasion. Even with the reviews I had hoped It would have been interesting – it wasn’t! How it can be described as ‘A life in Clothes’ – it isn’t! It’s puzzling mystic meanderings that give little identity to anything. Such an opportunity to share missed! I laboured on to finish it in the hope it would improve- it didn’t. Not sure what it won a prize for – it’s like the ‘emperor’s new clothes’ syndrome!
by Emma B Jay
Brilliant: strange, dreamy, sharp, moving, cerebral, tender, clever, painful…
A glancing, roundabout love letter to the very fabric of the wonderful old V&A museum, to serious curatorship, to scraps of textiles of all sorts, to her parents, children & partner, to brave radicalism in fashion, to craft skills, to prettiness and fragility, to gardening and weeds and, I suspect, to therapy.
All close to my heart too, so I am very grateful for this book.
by SusannahB
Claire Wilcox’s exquisitely written ‘A Life Amongst Clothes’ is not, as I initially thought, an account of the author’s working life at the Victoria and Albert Museum (where she holds the post of Senior Curator of Fashion) but a memoir in which Ms Wilcox reveals glimpses of her personal life amongst the artefacts of her working life. Therefore this memoir, which is presented in the form of very short chapters, has titles such as: ‘Kid Gloves’, where we read about the handling of crinolines that are weak with old age, followed by ‘Night Clothes’, where we read about Ms Wilcox’s childhood bedroom with its marble fireplace and sash windows and the vintage nightwear she wore as a young woman – not just for sleeping in but also as day-wear (fashion editor Grace Coddington, Ms Wilcox tells us, came into the vintage linen shop where she was working and borrowed some of the clothes to do a fashion shoot for British Vogue). And in amongst the author’s interesting anecdotes and memories, she discusses family, motherhood, parents, illness, death, cats, gardening, dressmaking, laundry, the clothes moth and more, and Ms Wilcox also shares with the reader the feelings she experienced after the very sad loss of her stillborn son and of how those feelings still consume her, which was very poignant to read. As stated in my opening sentence, this is an exquisitely written book: Ms Wilcox’s prose is almost mesmerising to read and although I had planned to keep this a bedtime book to dip in and out of each evening, I soon found myself immersed and loath to put it down. It may be true that if you like your biographies to be conventional and linear, then you might find the author’s non-chronological approach and almost dreamlike feel to some of the writing not quite to your taste, but I found this patchwork of beautifully-told memories and experiences an interesting and very engaging read.
5 Stars.
by R H TAYLOR
Great book to read read enjoyed it
by Nicola
This is a brilliant book. Every snippet, every thread, every scrap. Stories and fragments of memories pieced together and woven into a life. Honestly, I could not put it down. I’m buying it again. My mother will love this.
by Annie
Not in the normal biographical way, I found each short chapter an evocative gem…I sampled hidden anecdotes, researched hidden places and hidden people, poignant tales of death and scrapes and new births, of ideas and babies and cat walks, woven amongst tantalising textiles I could touch in my imagination, and meld into my own memories of past experiences. This book will sit along side Laurie Lee’s ‘Cider With Rosie’ and Claire Wellesley-Smith’s ‘Slow Stitch’ on my shelf, to be dipped into again and again.
by Judith A Livingston
I feel my life has been enriched by this book; it is exquisite. Like the best patchwork, it is full of intense and meaningful segments in this case, of her life and career, and this method allows the author freedom to describe each segment in its own terms.