15/06/2011

This week Libby Purves is joined by Phil Davison, Sylvia Holder, Iris Krass and Bill Collison.

Phil Davison is a craft-maker who worked as a couture pattern cutter to top London designers before learning the ancient art of cross-stitch on an exchange trip to Arkansas. Since then he has combined his obsession with street-art and cross-stitch, creating 'Urban Cross Stitch' kits with new designs that appeal to a new generation of stitchers. He also runs 'Cupcake, Cocktail and Cross Stitch' evenings. His first book 'Twisted Stitches' is published by Fil Rouge Press.

Sylvia Holder was a London PR consultant on a business trip to India when she first met Venkat, a young Indian boy on a beach, and subsequently agreed to pay for his education. Sadly, at the age of twenty seven, just when all his efforts were beginning to show results for him and his family, he was killed in a road accident. Sylvia set up the Venkatraman Memorial Trust, in his memory, to support thousands like him, changing lives for the better.

Iris Krass was fifteen when she was interned by the Japanese during the Second World War, along with her mother and younger brother and sister between 1942 and 1945. A new book 'Stolen Childhoods' by Nicola Tyrer, tells the previously untold stories of the children and their experiences of being interned. 'Stolen Childhoods' is published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson.

Bill Collison started out running a small greengrocers in Lewes, East Sussex, which expanded into a cafe and deli, known as Bill's Produce Store. He then opened up in Brighton, which soon became THE go-to destination for food-lovers and is continuing to expand. His book 'Cook, Eat, Smile' is published by Salt Yard.