The joy of sewing, poet Fatimah Asghar, Painting in miniature.

Shahidha Bari talks to Fatimah Asghar about poetry and the Emmy nominated web series Brown Girls. We have a look at the miniatures of Nicholas Hilliard and Isaac Oliver – court painters to Queen Elizabeth and James the first who both feature in an exhibition which invites visitors to pick up a magnifying glass to inspect every detail of their jewel-like images. Plus the popular history of sewing with Clare Hunter. She is also joined by historians Christina Faraday, who studies art in Tudor and Jacobean England and Jade Halbert, who researches the British Fashion Industry.

Elizabethan Treasures: Miniatures by Hilliard and Oliver runs at the National Portait Gallery in London from February 21st to May 19th 2019.
Clare Hunter has written Threads of Life
The Great British Sewing Bee is on air on BBC Two.
Fatimah Asghar's poetry collection is called If They Come For Us.