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Craftland

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What to expect

Connect with Britain’s extraordinary heritage and be awakened to the beauty all around you with the Sunday Times bestselling, soul-stirring journey to Craftland that reveals a richer, more meaningful way of living - by award-winning historian and broadcaster James Fox.

*SHORTLISTED FOR THE NERO NON-FICTION BOOK AWARD 2025*

For generations, what we made with our hands shaped who we were. The skills and knowledge passed down to us built our communities and defined our regions. And if you know where to look, they still do.

In Craftland, James Fox seeks out Britain’s last great craftspeople – those who are keeping our vanishing trades and traditions alive. Through them, we witness not only the living past but a deeper, more connected way of living today: one that is not yet lost and might still shape our future.

This soul-stirring journey shows that Britain is still a craft land, if only we have eyes to see it.

‘Inspiring’ Sunday Times
‘Wonderful’ Michael Morpurgo
‘Enchanting’ Amol Rajan
‘I read it in two gulps with delight’ Andrew Marr
‘This extraordinary book will leave you awestruck and inspired’ Xand van Tulleken
‘Beautiful, eye-opening and surprisingly moving – a treat to treasure’ Lucy Worsley
‘A joy’ Edmund de Waal


© James Fox 2025 (P) Penguin Audio 2025

Critics Review

An impassioned and inspiring account of the extraordinary men and women still doing traditional artisanal work in Britain
Sunday Times, *Book of the Week*
Craftland is a book that shimmers with love for a dwindling world of meticulous, patient labour … Lyrical … Deftly written and well researched
Guardian
Superb … A book with many highlights … [Fox] brings his critical intelligence to platform the usually silent process of mastering a craft. I read the book with admiration not only for the remarkable subjects individually, but also the human spirit that unites them all
New Statesman
If you want to know about Britain and yourself, read this book … This is a tremendous book that urges us – in spite of the seductions of crass modernity – to believe in the craftspeople, living and dead, who made us who we are.
Spectator
Meet the weavers, watchmakers and wheelwrights keeping Britain’s noble craft traditions alive … Fox effortlessly persuades the reader about the superiority of all things crafted
Mail on Sunday
Utterly enchanting
BBC Radio 4 Today
This hugely absorbing book is so full of stories of crafts and craftspeople and communities, and of creativity over the ages. It’s such an important story to tell and told so compellingly. Wonderful
Michael Morpurgo, author of War Horse
A joy
Edmund de Waal
Beautiful, eye-opening and surprisingly moving - a treat to treasure
Lucy Worsley, author of Jane Austen at Home
Craftland offers insights into the future as well as the past. It is a close-up study of human work which arrives in a moment when we’re all trying to understand what that means
Ian Leslie, author of John and Paul
Author James Fox
Narrator James Fox
Duration 7 hours and 35 minutes
Release Date
ISBN 9781529936094
Format Audiobook
Publisher Random House
Genre Decorative arts, Handicrafts, decorative arts and crafts, Material culture, Social and cultural history, Traditional trades, crafts and skills
Availability AU, GB, IE

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