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The Guardian
16-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Never mind the Norman bollocks: Reading's replica Bayeux tapestry is a prudish triumph!
'We've already got one,' sneers a snotty French knight in Monty Python and the Holy Grail. With that holy grail of British history, the Bayeux tapestry, about to be lent by France to the British Museum, we could say the same. In 1885, Elizabeth Wardle of Leek, Staffordshire, led a team of 35 women in an extraordinary campaign to embroider a meticulous, full-scale replica of the entire early medieval artwork. With Victorian energy and industry they managed it in just a year and by 1886 it was being shown around Britain and abroad. Today that Victorian Bayeux tapestry is preserved in Reading Museum, and like the original, can be viewed online. Are there differences? Of course. The Bayeux tapestry is a time capsule of the 11th century and when you look at its stitching you get a raw sense of that remote past. The Leek Embroidery Society version is no mean feat but it is an artefact of its own, Victorian age. The colours are simplified and intensified, using worsted thread, as Wardle explains in its end credits, 'dyed in permanent colours' by her husband Thomas Wardle, a leading Midlands silk dyeing industrialist. The Wardles were friends with the radical craft evangelist William Morris – a clue that Elizabeth's epic work of replication should be seen as part of the Victorian passion for medieval history that encompassed everything from neo-gothic architecture to Walter Scott's novel Ivanhoe and Morris's Kelmscott Chaucer – in which the poems are illustrated with woodcuts. In this Victorian dream of the past, sympathies were very much on the Saxon side. The Norman conquest was seen as a national tragedy in which traditional Anglo-Saxon freedoms were crushed by the 'Norman Yoke'. It's ironic that this underdog version of British history, with brave Saxons defying the wicked conquering Normans, prevailed at a time when they were themselves conquering or colonialising much of the planet. That immigrant Victorian Karl Marx wrote that when people are 'revolutionising themselves and things … they anxiously conjure up the spirits of the past to their service, borrowing from them names, battle slogans, and costumes'. This perfectly describes 19th-century Britain, which hid its creation of modern industrial capitalism in medieval styles. And when it came to reproducing the Bayeux tapestry, it was a new technology that made it possible – photography. Wardle and her team based their embroideries on what was considered at the time a nationally essential photographic project. In the 1870s, the British government itself commissioned Joseph Cundall to photograph the entire Bayeux tapestry. You can picture his intrepid expedition setting out by the boat train with red-coated soldiers to guard the camera and a team of bearers. A Ripping Yarn. Cundall's monochrome photographs were hand-coloured by art students back in Britain – and censored. Like other medieval art, including manuscripts illuminated by monks, the Bayeux tapestry has a plenitude of monsters and obscenities in its marginalia, including male nudes with graphically depicted penises. One naked man stands with a flamboyant erection, which may be part of the tapestry's realism about the psychology of war. When the Leek Embroidery Society borrowed a set of Cundall's photographs, they of course copied the false colours and underpants from these supposedly objective recordings. Sign up to Art Weekly Your weekly art world round-up, sketching out all the biggest stories, scandals and exhibitions after newsletter promotion In fact, this is not the only full-size Victorian replica of the tapestry. Cundall created his own continuous photographic replica, mounted on two ornate wooden rollers so that you can scroll through it in your private library. Perhaps this is what its most recent private owner, the late Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts, used to do. When his estate went on sale his 'tapestry' got much less attention from the media than other treasures such as his first edition of The Great Gatsby. But it was sold for £16,000 – to the Bayeux Museum in Normandy. At least in Bayeux it's in safe hands, just as the original has been for at least 600 years.
The Guardian
15-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Never mind the Norman bollocks: Reading's replica Bayeux tapestry is a prudish triumph!
'We've already got one,' sneers a snotty French knight in Monty Python and the Holy Grail. With that holy grail of British history, the Bayeux tapestry, about to be lent by France to the British Museum, we could say the same. In 1885, Elizabeth Wardle of Leek, Staffordshire, led a team of 35 women in an extraordinary campaign to embroider a meticulous, full-scale replica of the entire early medieval artwork. With Victorian energy and industry they managed it in just a year and by 1886 it was being shown around Britain and abroad. Today that Victorian Bayeux tapestry is preserved in Reading Museum, and like the original, can be viewed online. Are there differences? Of course. The Bayeux tapestry is a time capsule of the 11th century and when you look at its stitching you get a raw sense of that remote past. The Leek Embroidery Society version is no mean feat but it is an artefact of its own, Victorian age. The colours are simplified and intensified, using worsted thread, as Wardle explains in its end credits, 'dyed in permanent colours' by her husband Thomas Wardle, a leading Midlands silk dyeing industrialist. The Wardles were friends with the radical craft evangelist William Morris – a clue that Elizabeth's epic work of replication should be seen as part of the Victorian passion for medieval history that encompassed everything from neo-gothic architecture to Walter Scott's novel Ivanhoe and Morris's Kelmscott Chaucer – in which the poems are illustrated with woodcuts. In this Victorian dream of the past, sympathies were very much on the Saxon side. The Norman conquest was seen as a national tragedy in which traditional Anglo-Saxon freedoms were crushed by the 'Norman Yoke'. It's ironic that this underdog version of British history, with brave Saxons defying the wicked conquering Normans, prevailed at a time when they were themselves conquering or colonialising much of the planet. That immigrant Victorian Karl Marx wrote that when people are 'revolutionising themselves and things … they anxiously conjure up the spirits of the past to their service, borrowing from them names, battle slogans, and costumes'. This perfectly describes 19th-century Britain, which hid its creation of modern industrial capitalism in medieval styles. And when it came to reproducing the Bayeux tapestry, it was a new technology that made it possible – photography. Wardle and her team based their embroideries on what was considered at the time a nationally essential photographic project. In the 1870s, the British government itself commissioned Joseph Cundall to photograph the entire Bayeux tapestry. You can picture his intrepid expedition setting out by the boat train with red-coated soldiers to guard the camera and a team of bearers. A Ripping Yarn. Cundall's monochrome photographs were hand-coloured by art students back in Britain – and censored. Like other medieval art, including manuscripts illuminated by monks, the Bayeux tapestry has a plenitude of monsters and obscenities in its marginalia, including male nudes with graphically depicted penises. One naked man stands with a flamboyant erection, which may be part of the tapestry's realism about the psychology of war. When the Leek Embroidery Society borrowed a set of Cundall's photographs, they of course copied the false colours and underpants from these supposedly objective recordings. Sign up to Art Weekly Your weekly art world round-up, sketching out all the biggest stories, scandals and exhibitions after newsletter promotion In fact, this is not the only full-size Victorian replica of the tapestry. Cundall created his own continuous photographic replica, mounted on two ornate wooden rollers so that you can scroll through it in your private library. Perhaps this is what its most recent private owner, the late Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts, used to do. When his estate went on sale his 'tapestry' got much less attention from the media than other treasures such as his first edition of The Great Gatsby. But it was sold for £16,000 – to the Bayeux Museum in Normandy. At least in Bayeux it's in safe hands, just as the original has been for at least 600 years.
Hindustan Times
15-07-2025
- Hindustan Times
Los Angeles man dies in jail while awaiting trial for killing and dismemberment of wife, her parents
LOS ANGELES — A Los Angeles man accused of killing and dismembering his wife, her mother and her stepfather has died in jail while awaiting trial, authorities said Monday. Los Angeles man dies in jail while awaiting trial for killing and dismemberment of wife, her parents Samuel Bond Haskell, 37, was found dead Saturday in his cell in a downtown Los Angeles jail and died by suicide, a statement from the LA County district attorney said. He was accused of killing his wife and the mother of his three children Mei Haskell, 37, along with her mother, 64-year-old Yanxiang Wang, and stepfather, 72-year-old Gaoshan Li. Haskell had pleaded not guilty to three counts of murder. His next pretrial hearing had been scheduled for Monday. Haskell is the son of Emmy-winning television producer Sam Haskell, a former executive at the powerful William Morris talent agency. An email seeking comment from his attorney and family wasn't immediately answered. The attorney, Joe Weimortz, told NBC4 that Haskell had been willing to waive a preliminary hearing where evidence would be presented publicly and to waive a jury trial because of the effect it would have on his children. Weimortz said Haskell was 'not afraid of prison, but was afraid of an even larger media spectacle." He added that 'The Haskell family grieves every single life lost in this case.' District Attorney Nathan Hochman said in a statement that by killing himself, Haskell had escaped justice and denied the victims' relatives a chance to face him. Haskell had faced the possibility of life in prison without the chance of parole if convicted. In their statement, prosecutors laid out the evidence they intended to present against Haskell. They allege that he killed the three victims on Nov. 6, 2023, in the house they all shared in the Tarzana neighborhood of Los Angeles. The following day, prosecutors say, he paid day laborers $500 to remove heavy plastic trash bags from the property. After driving away, they discovered body parts in the bags. They returned the bags and the money to Haskell's house and called police, but no one was home and the bags were gone when officers arrived. Prosecutors said they obtained a video of Haskell putting a black plastic bag into a dumpster, and another of him transferring trash bags between his wife's Tesla and an SUV he had rented. Later the same day, a man going through a dumpster discovered a beheaded torso later determined to belong to Mei Haskell. Samuel Haskell, who had been staying at an Airbnb with his children since the killings, was arrested on Nov. 8, 2023. From the family home, police recovered eight plastic bags whose contents included bloody bedding, towels, a large machine saw, a machete, a plywood board covered in blood and canes belonging to the older victims. The bodies of Wang and Li have not been found, but bloodstains on a gun and knife found in the rented SUV matched the DNA of all three victims, authorities said. This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.
The Guardian
15-07-2025
- The Guardian
Hollywood agent's son accused of murdering wife and in-laws kills himself
A California man who was charged with murdering and dismembering his wife and her parents in the home they shared in the Los Angeles suburbs, then dumping his wife's remains into a garbage bag, has died by suicide in jail, the Los Angeles county district attorney confirmed on Monday. Samuel Bond Haskell IV, 37, was arrested in November 2023 and charged with the murders of his wife, Mei Haskell, her mother, Yanxiang Wang, and her stepfather, Gaoshan Li. Haskell pleaded not guilty to the three murder counts in January 2024 and was being held without bail pending trial. He was facing a sentence of life in prison with no parole. Haskell was found dead in his jail cell on Saturday morning, according to a statement from the LA county district attorney, Nathan Hochman, days before he was scheduled to appear in court for a preliminary hearing. 'Instead of standing before a judge and answering for the crimes he's been charged with, the defendant managed to escape justice,' Hochman said. 'This is one last cruel act by someone who did the most horrific things for reasons we will never entirely know. A family that has been dealing with unimaginable loss now has been robbed of their chance to face him, hold him accountable for his barbaric actions, and openly share their grief and their cherished memories of their loved ones.' Haskell is the son of Sam Haskell III, who was the worldwide head of television for William Morris and represented clients including Dolly Parton, George Clooney and Prince Edward before his retirement 20 years ago. In 2023, Haskell had been living with his wife, their three young children, and her parents in Tarzana, California. On 8 November of that year, a person looking through a strip-mall Dumpster in Encino, California, 5 miles from Haskell's house, discovered a torso, later confirmed to belong to his wife, in a black garbage bag. The body was so unrecognizable after being chopped into pieces that it took the Los Angeles coroner's office more than a month to make a positive identification. The case is among the most gruesome to hit the headlines in years, yet the Los Angeles police almost missed it because a group of day laborers who first found evidence of the murders on 7 November spoke only Spanish and were not taken seriously when they reported their findings. Haskell had hired and paid the men $500 to take away heavy black plastic trash bags from his home in Tarzana. After opening the bag to find human body parts, the workers returned the bags and money to Haskell, then alerted police. The same afternoon, Haskell was seen on video disposing of a black garbage bag in the Encino strip-mall. The bodies of Wang and Li have never been found. An uncle of Mei's told the Los Angeles Times that she had come to the United States from China to study accounting and met her future husband when they were both students at Cal State Northridge, a public university in the northern San Fernando Valley. After the first of their three children was born in 2010, Mei's parents emigrated from China and moved in with them. According to the uncle, Mei worked several jobs and was the main breadwinner in the household. It is not clear what work, if any, Haskell did or whether his family supported him financially. A lawyer for the Haskell family, Joseph A Weimortz Jr, told NBC News that Haskell was 'not afraid of prison, but was afraid of an even larger media spectacle', and how it would impact his children. 'Ultimately, my client was even willing to take his own life, believing that it would end this terrible chaos,' Weimortz said. 'The Haskell family grieves every single life lost in this case.' Andrew Gumbel contributed reporting In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988, chat on or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counselor. In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@ or jo@ In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at
San Francisco Chronicle
15-07-2025
- San Francisco Chronicle
Los Angeles man dies in jail while awaiting trial for killing and dismemberment of wife, her parents
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A Los Angeles man accused of killing and dismembering his wife, her mother and her stepfather has died in jail while awaiting trial, authorities said Monday. Samuel Bond Haskell, 37, was found dead Saturday in his cell in a downtown Los Angeles jail and died by suicide, a statement from the LA County district attorney said. He was accused of killing his wife and the mother of his three children Mei Haskell, 37, along with her mother, 64-year-old Yanxiang Wang, and stepfather, 72-year-old Gaoshan Li. Haskell had pleaded not guilty to three counts of murder. His next pretrial hearing had been scheduled for Monday. Haskell is the son of Emmy-winning television producer Sam Haskell, a former executive at the powerful William Morris talent agency. An email seeking comment from his attorney and family wasn't immediately answered. The attorney, Joe Weimortz, told NBC4 that Haskell had been willing to waive a preliminary hearing where evidence would be presented publicly and to waive a jury trial because of the effect it would have on his children. Weimortz said Haskell was 'not afraid of prison, but was afraid of an even larger media spectacle." He added that 'The Haskell family grieves every single life lost in this case.' District Attorney Nathan Hochman said in a statement that by killing himself, Haskell had escaped justice and denied the victims' relatives a chance to face him. Haskell had faced the possibility of life in prison without the chance of parole if convicted. In their statement, prosecutors laid out the evidence they intended to present against Haskell. They allege that he killed the three victims on Nov. 6, 2023, in the house they all shared in the Tarzana neighborhood of Los Angeles. The following day, prosecutors say, he paid day laborers $500 to remove heavy plastic trash bags from the property. After driving away, they discovered body parts in the bags. They returned the bags and the money to Haskell's house and called police, but no one was home and the bags were gone when officers arrived. Prosecutors said they obtained a video of Haskell putting a black plastic bag into a dumpster, and another of him transferring trash bags between his wife's Tesla and an SUV he had rented. Later the same day, a man going through a dumpster discovered a beheaded torso later determined to belong to Mei Haskell. Samuel Haskell, who had been staying at an Airbnb with his children since the killings, was arrested on Nov. 8, 2023. From the family home, police recovered eight plastic bags whose contents included bloody bedding, towels, a large machine saw, a machete, a plywood board covered in blood and canes belonging to the older victims. The bodies of Wang and Li have not been found, but bloodstains on a gun and knife found in the rented SUV matched the DNA of all three victims, authorities said.
