The intrusive wail of the cop sirens are drawing ever closer, but I feel an explanation is necessary. From the first time I read the book, I was not satisfied with their account of the accident.I was inclined to believe a collusion had been perpetrated on the reader. A collusion in which Fitzgerald had taken part. Nick's portrayal of himself as an innocent recipient of unwanted confidences; his position as an unwitting observer of a booze fuelled rich, but empty lifestyle, did not ring true, no matter how many times I read the book or studied its notes. So dressed in the fashion of the day and equipped with a copy of the book, I entered the plot. Where else to enter it but at one of the parties? After all you didn't need to be invited; you just went there. I decided to join the party where Nick arrives as a stranger. I could then introduce myself and strike up a friendshiparound my interest of dealing in bonds. With my knowledge of that roaring decade's Wall Street, we would soon be rich....

The novel explores the creation of the Bayeux Tapestry through the experiences of Margaret, who helps to design and fabricate the work. Margaret witnessed The Battle of Hastings, she is a natural artist and does the original drawings for the horses that appear in the tapestry. She and her father, who is a Master craftsman, design the tapestry to tell a secret, underlying story of sedition and resistance to Norman rule. The novel will follow Margaret's life during the first years after the Invasion, her involvement with the tapestry, and the English resistance.

Those words have been used over the millennia ever since Homo sapiens were able to communicate. No doubt Neanderthals used them as well. Alongside drawing ,painting and sculpture, storytelling is one of our oldest art forms. You can trace a direct line of decent from contemporary literature, graphic art, theatre, movies and television to a group of Palaeolithic men and women sitting around a fire as they listened to their shaman/storyteller spin them a tale. Storytelling invented our mythologies and legends, recorded our early deeds and catalogued our failures so others might learn and not repeat them. Early man would have held a storyteller in high regard. A person capable of relating the events of a hunt with words, gestures and sound effects that could be remembered by all, was a valuable asset to any tribe. Great oral traditions grew..