Alice Hattrick on creatively writing about history and embroidery and mother daughter relationships

I had the absolute pleasure hosting Alice Hattrick up in Leeds for a special edition of the Rippling Pages at Leeds Literature Festival.

I'm a huge fan of Alice's first book, ILL FEELINGS (Fitzcarraldo Editions), so I was obviously really excited to get stuck into their next book, FANCY WORK (Fitzcarraldo Editions), for this special live edition of the Rippling Pages. 

That book indeed weaved (auto)biography, science art history, reportage, and polemic to explore the impact of chronic illness on theirs and their mother’s lives. Alice applied some of these innovative techniques to FANCY WORK.

Alice explores the life and work of the incredibly influential Morris family and the arts and craft movement. Alice finds and traces evidence and ephemerality related to the life and work May Morris and their gender non-conforming partner, M.F. 

Get exclusive subscriber benefits from the Rippling Pages.  https://patreon.com/RipplingPagesPod?utm_medi

Check out the Rippling Pages Bookshop and buy all the books featured on the Rippling Pages: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/ripplingpagespod

Interested in hosting your own podcast? Follow this link and find out how: https://www.podbean.com/ripplingpages 

Chapters

0.15 - Introduction to the event 02.15 - How Alice was enjoying Leeds 03.00 - What is the book about? 05.00 - Who are the Morris Family? 9.00 - How the Morris's went back in history.  13.10 - Embroidery as labour 14.50 - Alice's reading. 22.45 - Why write history in this way? 26.05 - Making money from embroidery/writing 28.05 - How to uncover history 34.45 - Alice writing about feelings 40.00 - Alice's relationship with their mum.  43.00 - Alice's mum is an embroider  47.00 - Love in Alice's novel 47.30 - Rippling Pages Patreon Prize.

Reference Points

Walter Benjamin Judith Butler Ill Feelings (2021: Fitzcarraldo Books) - Alice Hattrick Feeling Backward: Loss and the Politics of Queer History - Heather Love  (2007:Harvard University Press) Queering the Subversive Stich (2020: Bloomsbury Publishing) - Joseph McBrinn José Esteban Muñoz The Subversive Stitch (1984:Bloomsbury Publishing) - Rozsika Parker  The Log Books (2026: Faber) - Tash Walker and Adam Zmith