On Tues 22nd March Clare Hunter visited Mainstreet to talk about her remarkable new cultural biography of Mary, Queen of Scots, Embroidering Her Truth.

At her execution Mary, Queen of Scots wore red. Widely known as the colour of strength and passion, it was in fact worn by Mary as the Catholic symbol of martyrdom.

In sixteenth-century Europe women’s voices were suppressed and silenced. Even for a queen like Mary, her prime duty was to bear sons. In an age when textiles expressed power, Mary exploited them to emphasise her female agency. From her lavishly embroidered gowns, to the subversive messages she embroidered in captivity for her supporters, Mary used textiles to advance her political agenda, affirm her royal lineage and tell her own story.

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‘In this charmed feat of imagination and learning, the beauties and disasters of Mary Stuart’s life unfold again, and her nimble brain and fingers are alive. It is a personal project, with the flavour of a memoir, but dense with fascinating information… Clare Hunter is at ease in this glittering, alien world, and moves through it as a woman, with Mary’s ‘joyouestie’ in mind as well as her suffering.’

– Hilary Mantel