The Bodley Head wins James Fox’s Craftland in 14-publisher auction

The Bodley Head has triumphed in a 14-way auction for Craftland by award-winning art historian and broadcaster James Fox.

Will Hammond, deputy publishing director, acquired UK and Commonwealth rights on behalf of The Bodley Head from Sophie Lambert at C&W. Craftland, “a journey through the crafts that shaped Britain in the company of the last master craftspeople who are keeping these remarkable but endangered skills and traditions alive”, will be a lead publication for The Bodley Head in autumn 2025.

The synopsis reads: “Through encounters with some of the last remaining master craftspeople at work today – weavers and wheelwrights, coopers and coppice-workers, boat-builders and bell-founders, tanners and thatchers, silversmiths and watch-makers – Craftland brings to life the vanishing skills, traditions and trades that made the fabric and governed the rhythms of everyday life in Britain for hundreds of years.”

James Fox is a director of studies in art history at Emmanuel College, University of Cambridge. He is the author of The World According to Colour: A Cultural History (Allen Lane, 2021) which was chosen as a Book of the Year by the Sunday Times, Daily Telegraph, the New Statesman, the Spectator and the Art Newspaper.

He has also presented TV series including "British Masters” (2011) “A History of Art in Three Colours” (2012), “The Age of the Image” (2020), “Nature & Us: A Journey Through Art” (2021) and the multi-award-winning animated series “Colorscope” (2017) for CNN.

Fox is also an adviser to the Loewe Craft Foundation and a Trustee of the Marchmont Makers Foundation, which supports arts and crafts practitioners across the Scottish Borders and beyond, aiming to inspire creativity across the arts, crafts, business and social enterprise.

The author said: ‘I am delighted that Craftland has found a home at The Bodley Head. I’ve been yearning to write this book  for years: to voyage into overlooked corners of Britain, to seek out the vernacular genius of our regions, and to meet the people who are fighting to keep our most fragile traditions alive. The history of craft is the history of Britain; I can’t think of anything I would rather do than tell its story.”

Hammond commented: “Craftland’s blend of social history, personal narrative, evocative description and passionate argument will offer readers a transporting sense of connection with their past and place, with landscape and culture, with beauty and skill, and ultimately with the wonder and richness of the material world. It will be a book for anyone invested not only in craft and heritage but in regional identity, nature and landscape, and for people seeking better ways to work and live. It will tap into some of the richest seams of our culture and has the potential to change the national conversation around the value of craft today.”