My plane was delayed for over an hour and a half today so I had a lot of time to work (and relax) it gave me time to catch up on some reading.

I have a hard copy of this book and have read it from cover to cover.

But it's wonderful to have it on my Ipad too.

"The Bayeux Tapestry is the world's most famous textile—an exquisite 230-foot-long embroidered panorama depicting the events surrounding the Norman Conquest of 1066. It is also one of the most mysterious and compelling works of art. This hauntingly stitched account of the battle that redrew the map of Medieval Europe has inspired dreams of theft, waves of nationalism, visions of limitless power, and aesthetic rapture. In this fascinating book, Yale professor R. Howard Bloch reveals the history, the hidden meaning, the deep beauty, and the enduring allure of this astonishing piece of cloth. 

A NEEDLE IN THE RIGHT HAND OF GOD opens with a gripping account of the event that inspired the tapestry: the swift, bloody Battle of Hastings, in which the Norman bastard William defeated the Anglo-Saxon King Harold and laid claim to England under his new title, William the Conqueror. But to truly understand the connection between battle and embroidery, one must retrace the web of international intrigue and scandal that climaxed at Hastings. With astonishing intimacy and immediacy, the artisans who fashioned this work of textile art brought to life a moment that changed the course of British culture and history."