THE IDENTIFICATION OF LACE
Pat Earnshaw (Paperback £9.99)
This book guides the reader through the intricacies of identifying a piece of lace, listing and illustrating the points to look for in each lace. It covers the whole range of lace from all parts of the world, selecting for examination those major types which the collector or dealer is most likely to come across or hear about. The numerous photographs are arranged to assist comparison of diagnostic features and to put together laces which might be confused with each other, so that their differences, sometimes subtle, can be appreciated.

THOMAS LESTER: HIS LACE AND THE EAST MIDLANDS INDUSTRY 1820-1905
By Anne Buck (£10.95)
This book sets the designs and the development of the Bedford lace merchant, Thomas Lester's, family business against the fashions of the period, the conditions in the industry and of its workers, and the relentless competition from machine made lace. The quality of his lace is assessed and illustrated from examples surviving in the collections of the Cecil Higgins Art Gallery, Bedford and the Luton Museum, Bedfordshire.

IN THE CAUSE OF ENGLISH LACE: LACE-MAKING IN THE MIDLANDS, PAST AND PRESENT
By Anne Buck and C.C. Channer (£9.99) CAN BE ORDERED ON REQUEST
Although published over 90 years ago, "The Life and Work of Catheine C. Channer" has few modern rivals, and is reprinted her for the first time within a more extensive work by Anne Buck. Miss Channer outlines the development of lacemaking in Europe, in England and particularly in the East Midlands. Her personal insight and awareness of social change provide a convincing analysis, still significant today, of the state of the once flourishing industry and of the reasons for its decline. She dispels some prevailing myths, but also makes proposals for its recovery.