On Craftsmanship by Christopher Frayling

On Craftsmanship by Christopher Frayling

‘Craftsmanship has again become fashionable in high places, just as it did in the last few recessions.’

The concept of craftsmanship has never been as relevant and timely as it is today. Assailed on all sides by – among many other tendencies - flexible working, short-termism, portfolio careers, quick-fix training and the cult of celebrity, it has recently re-entered public debate with a new sense of urgency. Why?

A bestseller in hardback, this series of linked essays by the man who ran the Royal College of Art for many years is now available in paperback, and explores the crafts in education, in history and literature, in the contemporary arts landscape, in the language, in the digital age, taking an unsentimental, hard-headed look at craftsmanship today. Only when the romantic cobwebs have been blown away, it argues, can the key importance of the crafts be fully understood.

Christopher Frayling was until recently Rector at the Royal College of Art and Chairman of Arts Council England and of the Design Council. An historian, writer and award-winning broadcaster on radio and television, he has published eighteen books on the arts, design and film. He was once described as ‘the Kenneth Clark of popular culture’. In the year 2001, Christopher was knighted for ‘services to art and design education’.