Passages to the Past is pleased to bring you a guest post by Sarah Bower in honor of the release of her novel, THE NEEDLE IN THE BLOOD! And thanks to Sourcebooks I have one copy of THE NEEDLE IN THE BLOOD up for grabs, so be sure to enter the giveaway at the end of this post!
And now, please enjoy this fascinating guest post from Sarah Bower...
When considering what to write for this post, I decided to take my cue from your title, and reflect on the route that brought me to write about the Bayeux Tapestry. The English are famous for being able to transform defeat and embarrassment into a virtue, whether in war or on the soccer pitch. We still somehow manage to regard the evacuation of our troops from Dunkirk in 1940 as one of our finest hours when it was, in historical fact, one of the lowest points in all our long history.
In 1940, we were nearly invaded by Hitler. In 1066, these islands were successfully invaded by William Duke of Normandy, aka The Bastard, but known henceforth as The Conqueror. As a result, 1066 is the most recognised date in English history. Everyone knows that is the year in which Anglo Saxon King Harold was defeated by William at the Battle of Hastings. King Harold’s legend portrays him as the archetypal Englishman – tall, blond, honourable, courageous... and a heroic loser.
William’s invasion, and his reasons for pursuing it, are the subject of several works of contemporary propaganda, but none so famous as the Bayeux Tapestry which, given our English nostalgia for glorious lost causes, has become the ‘wallpaper’ of our history, its images so familiar we no longer really see them. I hadn’t given this remarkable work a second thought since I was in primary school, when a set of circumstances came together to change my relationship with it forever.
I had recently been offered a place to read for a creative writing MA at the University of East Anglia. I was beginning to think about what I would write while there. I sat down one evening to watch Simon Schama’s ‘History of Britain’ on TV, and found myself looking at a somewhat crude embroidered image of a woman and child fleeing a burning house. ‘This,’ said Schama, ‘is the first image in Western art of what war does to civilians.’ It was as though somebody had switched on all the lights in my head. That, I realised, was the seed of the story I wanted to tell, the story of how that remarkable image came to be.
Once I began to research the Tapestry (which isn’t a tapestry at all, but an embroidery), however, I discovered that story was impossible to tell. We cannot say how or why the Bayeux Tapestry came to be. We do not know who commissioned it, who made it or why. Why, for example, when only a patron of substance could have assembled the skills, resources and materials need to produce a work over 230 feet long, is it made of such humble materials: woollen embroidery on linen, using a limited palette of what it is reasonable to assume were the colours seasonally available from dyes distilled from local vegetation? When was it made? How was it made? What were the working conditions of the embroiderers, and where was their workshop situated? There are firm answers to none of these questions, merely informed speculation and blatant guesswork. Once I discovered how little was actually known about the Tapestry, I realised it was a perfect subject for fiction. There was plenty of room to make stuff up.
Once I began to look at the work itself, there were more disconcerting and unexpected revelations. The narrative of the Battle of Hastings and the events leading up to it fills up only about two thirds of the available space on the long strip of linen. In the upper and lower margins other stories are being told, fables, small tales of individual lust and extreme violence, obscure and allusive parables, pastorals of ploughing and vine tending. In the margins of the Tapestry the conquered stitched their resistance, their rage and fear, their jokes, their secret life. There is a truth in the margins which is absent from the swaggering propaganda of the main narrative, but it is a fictional truth, arrived at through storytelling.
As I read into the many interpretations that have been put on these mysterious marginal images, I began to form an impression of who had made them and why, of who would understand them and who be deceived by them, and thus arrived at the spine of my story, the tension between the over-mighty Bishop Odo of Bayeux, the ambitious half-brother of The Conqueror, and a workshop full of English women whose only route to resistance was through their needles. While Odo bestrides the real world of blood and politics, the embroiderers exist in the liminality of the workshop, in creative imagination. Their bodies are at the bishop’s command, but he cannot control their minds.
I didn’t know, when I began the book, that it would be a love story. I thought it would only be a war story, about the wanton exercise of power. But it became a particular kind of love story, one that begins with a rape, and that image, of love out of violence, reconciliation out of hate, seems to me to be symbolic of what the Norman Conquest means to the English. Ultimately, Harold’s heroism is doomed to become myth whereas William’s pragmatism has endured, in everything from the Tower of London to trial by jury, from our great cathedrals to the ubiquity of rabbits (introduced by the Normans, who farmed them for meat and fur). Having begun with nostalgia for a past which never really existed, I found myself moving through the mythology of the Tapestry, and the brutal fairytale of Odo and Gytha, to a sense that the English identity didn’t die with Harold Godwinson but was born out of William’s victory.
My novel shows this, I hope, through the eyes of an ill-matched pair of lovers, unable to live either together or apart, each traumatised by the experience of conquest out of which grows the Tapestry, whose capacity to survive neglect, abuse and even the Nazis is, to my mind, nothing short of magical.
About THE NEEDLE IN THE BLOOD
Publication Date: March 1, 2012 | Sourcebooks Publishing | 544p
{SYNOPSIS}
His lust for power gave him everything. But it might cost him the love of his life.
The Bishop hired her for a simple job: embroider a tapestry. It is an enormous work, a cloth trophy of the conquest of England. But her skill with a needle and thread is legendary. It would be uncomplicated.
She plans to kill him as soon as she gets the chance. He and his brother, William the Conqueror, murdered her King and destroyed her world. Revenge, pure and clean. It would be simple.
But neither planned to fall desperately in love. As the two become hopelessly entangled, friends become enemies, enemies become lovers, and nothing in life—or the tapestry—is what it seems. An unlikely love story born of passion and intensity, crafted by critically acclaimed historical novelist Sarah Bower,The Needle in the Blood is a "story of love, war, and the tangled truth of England's birth."
About Sarah Bower
Giveaway Information
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- Giveaway is open to to US and Canada ONLY.
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Giveaway ends on March 14th.
Good luck to you all!

I'd love to enter for this one Amy. You know I already stalk you through all the places you mentioned. Lol.
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Thanks!
This sounds very intriguing. I love tapestries! Have to read this one!
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Thank you for the chance to win this book.
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What an interesting story. It is strange that something that like the tapestry has no distinct history of who made it. I would love to read this book.
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This book sounds very interesting I would love to read it ; ) Lynda
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I'm a big fan of this era of historical fiction, and the earlier edition of this novel has been on my wish list for over three years. Thanks for the giveaway.
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What an interesting interview, there is a lot to learn about the Bayeux Tapestry.
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I follow this blog by email and am also a member of the Facebook group (Carl Scott)
I also follow you postings on Twitter. (@carlrscott)
I Tweeted about the giveaway: https://twitter.com/#!/carlrscott/status/175573120286081024
Thanks, have a great weekend.
I would love to win this book - my email is stuartmacallister@hotmail.co.uk
ReplyDeleteThanks!!
I think most people who have read my novel about 1066 know by now that I am not a big fan of Duke William - but I did enjoy Sarah's lovely book
ReplyDelete(don't include me in the comp I've already got a UK copy!)
Good luck in the States Sarah!
This book looks fascinating; I'm definitely adding it to the TBR list...
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Andrea
I loved Sins of the House of Borgia, looking forward to Needle in the Blood. Also, interview with Sarah was fascinating. I'd never heard of the Tapestry of Bayeaux; I agree, great subject for a historical fiction book!
ReplyDeleteAmy , I forgot to put my email address in my comment, can it be added, or should I re-submit?
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Denise
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I CANNOT WAIT to read this book! I really liked Sins of the House of Borgia and have been waiting for this one to come out!
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Thanks Amy!
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This book is listed on my blog's Wish List! I would love to read it!
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This sounds really good and the cover is gorgeous!
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Would love to read this.
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A very original subject to write about! Sounds like a wonderful read!
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I am one of your most ardent followers already by mail, FB and twitter. I have twittered and FB'ed this giveaway. I have read Ms Bower's Borgia book and loved it and I am DYING to read her interpretation of events leading to the 1066 invasion--the last time Britain was invaded. Please enter me. I am so "into" historical fiction in general and love Ms. Bower's art.
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I enjoyed this interview and am really looking forward to reading this novel. I'm currently fascinated with this time in history.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed Sins of the House of Borgia, but thought Book of Love was actually a better title. :)
Please enter me into the giveaway.
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Please enter me for this book! It looks so fabulous!
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Oh, yeah!!! I am SO wanting to read this one! Thanks for the giveaway! :-)
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I really enjoyed The Sins of the House of Borgia, so I can't wait to get my hands on Sarah's latest.
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This story has so many elements to it that I like. The love sounds passionate as well as dangerous.
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I've been waiting for Sarah Bower to release her next book. Thanks for the chance to win it.
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This sounds like amazing historical fiction and I would love to win a copy!! Thanks so much for bringing it to my attention and for the giveaway:)
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Thanks for the giveaway.
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I enjoyed reading about the inspiration for the book. It sounds very interesting. Thanks for the giveaway.
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I would love to read this, and I'm a follower.
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What a fascinating guest message from this author. I always thought I knew everything about the Tapestries, and her perspective gave me new insights. Loved this review in every aspect, Amy. I would love to have a hard copy of this book for my library. Please sign me up for the giveaway! Thanks: I'm a follower in every aspect of yours, and a fan of the author, too!
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What a great giveaway! Please enter me!
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Great interview and give away! Please enter me.
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A fascinating post and wonderful giveaway. saubleb(at)gmail(dot)com
ReplyDeleteWhat a great guest post! I'm intrigued by your book and this tapestry. The detail must be beautiful and to think it's so old...I love that kind of thing. Your book sounds delightful. Thanks for the contest :)
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Tapestry's are beautiful and I'm sure they had to be very talented.+5 follower
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Sounds like a good read. Thanks for the giveaway
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this sounds like an exciting book ! I would love to win it ; )
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This sounds like a very good book. Please enter me in your contest.
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I'm a follower- thanks for the giveaway!
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Another great book that I found out about because of you. Truly, thank you!
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I'm so excited to get my hands on this book!
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I love historical fiction and embriodery. This story sounds so thrilling. I would love to learn more about the Bayeux Tapestry!!!
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Already a fan, and I appreciate the opportunity to win this marcelous book.
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