There is not just one story of silk. In silk is science, history and mythology. In silk is the future.

Aarathi Prasad’s Silk is a gorgeous new history weaving together the story of a unique material that has fascinated the world for millennia. 

 Through the scientists who have studied silk, and the biology of the animals from which it has been drawn, Prasad explores the global history, natural history, and future of a unique material that has fascinated the world for millennia.

For silk, prized for its lightness, luminosity, and beauty is also one of the strongest biological materials ever known. More than a century ago, it was used to make the first bulletproof vest, and yet science has barely even begun to tap its potential. As the technologies it has inspired – from sutures to pharmaceuticals, replacement body parts to holograms – continue to be developed in laboratories around the world, they are now also beginning to offer a desperately needed, sustainable alternative to the plastics choking our planet.

Prasad's Silk is a cultural and biological history from the origins and ancient routes of silk to the biologists who learned the secrets of silk-producing animals, manipulating the habitats and physiologies of moths, spiders and molluscs. Because there is more than one silk, there is more than one story of silk. More than one road, more than one people who discovered it, and wove its threads.

From the moths of China, Indonesia and India to the spiders of South America and Madagascar, to the silk-producing molluscs of the Mediterranean, Silk is a book rich in the passionate connections made by women and men of science to the diversity of the animal world. It is an intoxicating mix of biography, intellectual history and science writing that brings to life the human obsession with silk.

Silk: A History in Three Metamorphoses, By Aarathi Prasad, Read by Aarathi Prasad and Lucinda Roberts

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The acclaimed international bestseller of the Tudor court, during the years of Henry VIII’s pursuit of Anne Boleyn – and the revolutionary sequence of events that followed.


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1521. Young Mary Boleyn arrives at court, maid in waiting and favourite to Queen Katherine of Aragon.

Yet Mary catches the eye of the capricious king and – propelled by the ambitions of the powerful Boleyn family – she betrays her queen, and takes her place as Henry VIII’s new mistress.

But while Mary is in childbed, a rival comes to court – her sister Anne, a young woman ruthless in her drive to become queen.

With her own destiny unknown, and the Boleyn enemies gathering, Mary must defy her family – and command her own fate.

With an exclusive afterword written and read by Philippa Gregory, exploring the inspiration behind Mary’s story.

The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory - Exclusive Extract 1

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The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory - Exclusive Extract 3

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Silk: A History in Three Metamorphoses, By Aarathi Prasad, Read by Aarathi Prasad and Lucinda Roberts

HarperCollins Publishers

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