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Winner of the East Anglian Book of the Year 2015 Winner of the New Angle Book Prize 2017 John Craske, a Norfok fisherman, was born in 1881 and in 1917, when he had just turned thirty-six, he fell seriously ill. For the rest of his life he kept moving in and out of what was described as 'a stuporous state'. In 1923 he started making paintings of the sea and boats and the coastline seen from the sea, and later, when he was too ill to stand and paint, he turned to embroidery, which he could do lying in bed. His embroideries were also the sea, including his masterpiece, a huge embroidery of The Evacuation of Dunkirk. Very few facts about Craske are known, and only a few scattered photographs have survived, together with accounts by the writer Sylvia Townsend Warner and her lover Valentine Ackland, who discovered Craske in 1937. So - as with all her books - Julia Blackburn's account of his life is far from a conventional biography. Instead it is a quest which takes her in many strange directions - to fishermen's cottages in Sheringham, a grand hotel fallen on hard times in Great Yarmouth and to the isolated Watch House far out in the Blakeney estuary; to Cromer and the bizarre story of Einstein's stay there, guarded by dashing young women in jodhpurs with shotguns. Threads is a book about life and death and the strange country between the two where John Craske seemed to live. It is also about life after death, as Julia's beloved husband Herman, a vivid presence in the early pages of the book, dies before it is finished. In a gentle meditation on art and fame; on the nature of time and the fact of mortality; and illustrated with Craske's paintings and embroideries, Threads shows, yet again, that Julia Blackburn can conjure a magic that is spellbinding and utterly her own.… (plus d'informations)
This is a difficult book to review - indeed it could be said that it is difficult to read. It is not a typical biography - in part because the sources were so few and so difficult for the author to bring together. It is certainly not the type of biography that is dense with facts. This is mirrored in the sub-title. Julia Blackburn uses the term 'delicate life' in my opinion to suggest that since she doesn't or isn't writing a biography packed with facts - the biographical aspects are very suggestive. As well of course John Craske's life was dogged by illness and his health was delicate.
In addition this book is semi-autobiographical telling us a lot about her own life particularly her relationship with her husband Herman. There is an underlying theme or strand of couples: John Craske and Laura, the author and her husband Herman, Herman's friend Hans, whose husband Denis died during the writing of the biography. Apart from their individual relationships, work is the thing that each couple seems to have in common as they cope with their loss.
To other readers I recommend that before you dive into this book, explore it thoroughly. Note for example that the illustrations are listed at the back of the book not under each illustration. I did find this rather frustrating although there may have been economic reasons for this. It does have an index which is great but when I wanted to go back and check who Jacynth was - she is not in the index.
Julia Blackburn has a fascination with Einstein who had indeed been in the area where John Craske and his wife Laura lived in Norfolk. I failed to see the importance of this link when we are never told about the current condition of the Craske's major embroidered work 'The Evacuation of Dunkirk'. Can the man in the street see the embroidery? or is it locked away and only to be seen by appointment? What condition is it in now?
There is a section Chapter 39 entitled 'Embroidering Men' which is very interesting and focuses on the use of embroidery by men in prisons. It is here that Jacynth features - she is in fact Lady Jacynth Fitzalan Howard. In her acknowledgements the author thanks Ronald Blythe with whom she has talked about men embroidering after WW I.
Chapter 4 gives the reader a good idea of the thinness of the sources and the way in which various threads are present but come to nothing. I thought that Chapter 32 entitled Uncatalogued Boxes was a pivotal point - it is here that the 'story' seems to take a turn with the location of more material in archives.
A very interesting subject and book. It was a serendipitous find at the Library and I am so pleased I found it. ( )
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Winner of the East Anglian Book of the Year 2015 Winner of the New Angle Book Prize 2017 John Craske, a Norfok fisherman, was born in 1881 and in 1917, when he had just turned thirty-six, he fell seriously ill. For the rest of his life he kept moving in and out of what was described as 'a stuporous state'. In 1923 he started making paintings of the sea and boats and the coastline seen from the sea, and later, when he was too ill to stand and paint, he turned to embroidery, which he could do lying in bed. His embroideries were also the sea, including his masterpiece, a huge embroidery of The Evacuation of Dunkirk. Very few facts about Craske are known, and only a few scattered photographs have survived, together with accounts by the writer Sylvia Townsend Warner and her lover Valentine Ackland, who discovered Craske in 1937. So - as with all her books - Julia Blackburn's account of his life is far from a conventional biography. Instead it is a quest which takes her in many strange directions - to fishermen's cottages in Sheringham, a grand hotel fallen on hard times in Great Yarmouth and to the isolated Watch House far out in the Blakeney estuary; to Cromer and the bizarre story of Einstein's stay there, guarded by dashing young women in jodhpurs with shotguns. Threads is a book about life and death and the strange country between the two where John Craske seemed to live. It is also about life after death, as Julia's beloved husband Herman, a vivid presence in the early pages of the book, dies before it is finished. In a gentle meditation on art and fame; on the nature of time and the fact of mortality; and illustrated with Craske's paintings and embroideries, Threads shows, yet again, that Julia Blackburn can conjure a magic that is spellbinding and utterly her own.
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In addition this book is semi-autobiographical telling us a lot about her own life particularly her relationship with her husband Herman. There is an underlying theme or strand of couples: John Craske and Laura, the author and her husband Herman, Herman's friend Hans, whose husband Denis died during the writing of the biography. Apart from their individual relationships, work is the thing that each couple seems to have in common as they cope with their loss.
To other readers I recommend that before you dive into this book, explore it thoroughly. Note for example that the illustrations are listed at the back of the book not under each illustration. I did find this rather frustrating although there may have been economic reasons for this. It does have an index which is great but when I wanted to go back and check who Jacynth was - she is not in the index.
Julia Blackburn has a fascination with Einstein who had indeed been in the area where John Craske and his wife Laura lived in Norfolk. I failed to see the importance of this link when we are never told about the current condition of the Craske's major embroidered work 'The Evacuation of Dunkirk'. Can the man in the street see the embroidery? or is it locked away and only to be seen by appointment? What condition is it in now?
There is a section Chapter 39 entitled 'Embroidering Men' which is very interesting and focuses on the use of embroidery by men in prisons. It is here that Jacynth features - she is in fact Lady Jacynth Fitzalan Howard. In her acknowledgements the author thanks Ronald Blythe with whom she has talked about men embroidering after WW I.
Chapter 4 gives the reader a good idea of the thinness of the sources and the way in which various threads are present but come to nothing. I thought that Chapter 32 entitled Uncatalogued Boxes was a pivotal point - it is here that the 'story' seems to take a turn with the location of more material in archives.
A very interesting subject and book. It was a serendipitous find at the Library and I am so pleased I found it. (