Scotland, stitch by stitch

    Last year I posted briefly about the ambitious embroidery project The Great Tapestry of Scotland - stitching the story of Scotland from pre-history to modern times. Lindsay and Dark Puss asked back then which events would be included in the work, and here is a list of the subjects to be depicted in the panels.

    

    The project statistics are worth noting, too: 50,000 sewing hours, 49,000 metres of yarn, over 150 separate panels, and the finished piece - it's due to be completed next summer - will be the biggest tapestry in the world (the Bayeux is as nothing in comparison!).

    Speaking of the Bayeux tapestry, it comes into a fascinating plot strand in Jane Rusbridge's excellent novel Rook, which I was talking about yesterday. The book's setting, the south coast village of Bosham, appears in the tapestry itself, and its history as recorded there affects the stories of Jane's present day characters. This leads me to wonder whether some novelist of the future will use The Great Tapestry of Scotland as material for the page, fashioning a drama, perhaps, from stitches of coloured wool.