Book launch: Fleeced - unravelling the history of wool and war 

Not all about wool is warm and fuzzy . . . drawing extensively on the NLA collections, Fleeced explores how, throughout history, heightened demand for wool in wartime existed in a vortex of negotiation, intrigue, and anxiety.

Join authors Trish FitzSimons and Madelyn Shaw, in conversation with Annabelle Quince, as they connect the concurrent rise of industrial production of woollen fabrics and Southern hemisphere sheep culture in the 19th century, and its influence on the enormous increase in the size of armies in the 20th century. Explore how warring nations jockeyed for access to the same limited resource, while they simultaneously searched for its elusive replacement - leading to the decisive rise of fully synthetic fibres after the Korean War, and our current plight of pervasive micro-plastic pollution. 

Books will be available for purchase from the NLA bookshop, and the authors will available for signings after the event.