David Reekie

Saint Bishop and Concubine David Reekie

The Bayeux Tapestry is the most important artefact to have survived from the Middle Ages, but its creation is shrouded in mystery. Where and why was it made, and by whom? Who was its designer, who was its patron and why did it vanish for four hundred years until its rediscovery in 15th Century Bayeux? Where was the workshop where it was stitched? Who were the craftspeople and were they men or women? These are the questions this book sets out to address. Do the answers lie in the English county of Kent? The solutions to all these mysteries may be found in the lives three historical personalities of the book's title. Saint Augustine, the man responsible for the conversion of the English to Roman Christianity, Bishop Odo, the warrior prelate and brother of William the Conqueror, and a remarkable woman, Edith Swan Neck, the handfasted wife of Harold Godwinson who was described in the Canterbury entry of the Domesday Book as " Earl Harold's concubine". The history of the Kingdom of Kent, the Norman Conquest and the interweaving of the stories of these three are the keys to the unlocking of the mysteries of the Tapestry and the creation of the most remarkable textile ever made.