Heroic Handicrafts: Covert Weapons of War

Forget the cliché of women making-do-and-mending quietly at home while men were away on the fighting front. Handicrafts, in fact, became ingenious tools of espionage, morale, sabotage, and propaganda during the Second World War. Esther uncovers the hidden tales of how women used domestic craft skills to assemble spy disguises for SOE operatives, smuggle secrets, and turn needlecraft into a covert weapon of war. Her fascinating talk blends life history with social history, using a wide variety of primary sources to tell a hitherto unsung story of the war effort.