The Needlework of Mary Queen of Scots

Rating:
Summary: Must buy for embroidery fans
Review: Margaret Swain has done a fantastic job of writing what is essentially an historical book on thee influences on Mary Queen of Scots needlework, and it makes fascinating reading.

Swain has traced her life and the types of embroidery and needlework she did in Scotland, later in France and then finally during her last captivity in England. The clever messages she used to send in her embroideries as messages to her supporters, and the puns in many of her chosen subjects are explained.

What I found most wonderful in this book is that while I have always admired the needleword of MQS I have never really understood its significance. Margaret Swain really brought that side of it alive for me and left me with a far deeper appreciation of what they were all about.

I have the soft cover version of this which is excellent value, it has some kind of hard wearing plastic coating which makes it almost as durable as the hard cover version. Really unfortunately there are only two pages of colour illustration in here and I think the embroidery of MQS deserves better illustration than that. It is certainly generous with the black and white pictures.