Stitches & Stories is a collaboration between Jo from and Jules at North Books. We thought a book group of crafters who sit and discuss books while they work alongside each other would be rather fun. Jo takes the credit for coming up with the textile-themed books.

The group meets on the third Thursday of every alternate month from 4pm to 6pm, and refreshments will be included.

Bring a stitching project with you and don’t forget to read the book in advance! See below.

JOIN THE CLUB

The book club meetings are seated events, so places are limited, and events can get pretty full. Please email Jules on jules@northbooks.co.uk to add your name to the list. Participation is free if the book is purchased in advance from North Books at a 10% discount.

At North Books, 4 Castle Street, Hay-on-Wye on Thursday 21 August, 4–6pm.

THE BOOK

A Single Thread by Tracy Chevalier was the third book on S&S’s 2025 reading list

The fourth novel of 2025 up for discussion on Thursday 21 August is The Winter Dress by Lauren Chater. This book is available from North Books at a 10% discount.

TWO WOMEN SEPARATED BY CENTURIES, THEIR LIVES DRAWN TOGETHER BY A BEAUTIFUL SILK DRESS

Textiles historian Jo Baaker returns to the Dutch island where she was born, to investigate the provenance of a valuable seventeenth-century silk dress retrieved from a sunken shipwreck. Her research leads her to Anna Tesseltje, a poor Amsterdam laundress who served on the fringes of the Dutch court. But how did Anna come to possess such a precious dress? Jo is convinced the truth lies hidden between its folds, but as she gets closer to Anna's history, haunting details of her own past emerge.