The Rippling Pages is a podcast on the craft of writing, created and crafted by me.
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Alice Hattrick on creatively writing about history and embroidery and mother daughter relationships – Rippling Pages: Interviews with Writers
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.
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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
- Alice Hattrick on creatively writing about history and embroidery and mother daughter relationships
- Ask the Host – Liam on origins of the podcast, literary salons, and a summer books preview
- Nicholas Royle on writing about his love for second hand books and bookshops (archive re-release)
- Stu Hennigan on writing in vernacular and sympathetic truthful portrayals of the north
- Amber Medland on overcoming writers block and writing with George Saunders
- Polly Barton on writing about knotty linguistic concepts and loving language (Archive Re-Release)
- Camille Bordas on finding detail in small objects and writing in different languages
- Camille Bordas on making difficult topics funny and crafting sharp dialogue
- Bonus! Lucy Caldwell on annotated Hamlet and Easter Eggs
- Lucy Caldwell on writing transcendent psychic moments and finding meaning in life

© Liam Bishop, 2025. All rights reserved.