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Craftland

A Journey Through Britain’s Lost Arts and Vanishing Trades

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Craftland

By: James Fox
Narrated by: James Fox
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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

Britain was once a craft land. For generations what we made with our hands shaped our identities, built our communities and defined our regions. Craftland chronicles the vanishing skills and traditions that used to govern every aspect of life on these shores.

From the Isles of Scilly to the Scottish Highlands, James Fox travels the length of Britain to seek out the country’s last great craftspeople.

Stepping inside the workshops of blacksmiths and wheelwrights, cutlers and coopers, bellfounders and watchmakers, we glimpse not only our past but another way of life: one that is not yet lost and might still shape our future.

For as long as there are humans, there will be craft. It is all around us, hiding in plain sight, animating even the most ordinary things. Fox shows that Britain is still a craft land, if only we have eyes to see it.

'Full of stories of crafts and craftspeople and communities, and creativity over the ages. Wonderful' MICHAEL MORPURGO

'Beautiful, eye-opening and surprisingly moving - a treat to treasure' LUCY WORSLEY

'This extraordinary book will leave you awestruck' XAND VAN TULLEKEN

'Brimming with fresh news and seasoned with hope. I read it in two gulps with delight' ANDREW MARR

© James Fox 2025 (P) Penguin Audio 2025

 Art Crafts & Hobbies Customs & Traditions Europe Great Britain Social Sciences Highlander

Critic reviews

An impassioned and inspiring account of the extraordinary men and women still doing traditional artisanal work in Britain
Craftland is a book that shimmers with love for a dwindling world of meticulous, patient labour … Lyrical … Deftly written and well researched
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
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.
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
Utterly enchanting (Amol Rajan)
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)
All stars
Most relevant
I learnt so much from this book. I am from bedfordshire originally, from one of the villages mentioned, and I had always heard of someone on the river who cut rushes. but learning the whole story of what she does was incredible.

it was an incredible book and made me feel proud to be a crafts person, in a way that I have never quite felt before. learning the heritage of crafts in England was fantastic and inspiring in a way I cannot quite describe.

unknown heritage

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An impassioned and eloquent social history of the UK’s endangered crafts that persuasively makes the case for their continued and treasured value in the age of consumerism and AI. Recommended.

Impassioned and eloquent

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Beautifully told..very evocative and a powerful reminder of some of the things that truly do make Britain great

Wonderfully told human story of British craft

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My book of the year, and it's only Jan. Utterly, utterly brilliant. Packed with fascinating history and detail about various crafts/trades and the people quietly pushing against the tide of automation and mass production. Thought-provoking and poignant, but also heartening to hear of the skill, tenacity, vision and ingenuity of the craftspeople who are finding ways to make their crafts relevant today and into the future. Philosophical, deeply respectful, moving, absorbing and vital - a refreshing antidote to the many ways in which our modern world has failed our most fundamental needs, providing an environment in which so many of us have lost touch with our hands, our bodies, our purpose, our souls, our selves, together with our relationship with, and appreciation of, things. Above all, human. This book has, for me at least, provided food for thought long after the final page. Superb 🙌🙏

Outstanding

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Thoughtful evocative sad and yet hopeful. I would recommend this to anyone who has engaged with an object and felt wonder.

Engaging audio wonderfully read

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