What do you think?
Rate this book
Gossamer Days: Spiders, Humans and Their Threads
A lively and personal account of the strange, centuries long entanglement between humans and spiders.
What happens when one making animal meets another? Gossamer Days explores the strange web of spider-human relationships.
From gun sights to sticky tunics via acoustic lures, royal underwear and the mystery of the disappearing spider goats, Eleanor Morgan's intriguing and original book examines the strange, centuries long entanglement between humans and spiders.
Artist and writer Eleanor Morgan has spent a decade working with spiders and their silk. Her explorations have led her in search of one of the world's largest web weaving spiders, to the rooftops of Oxford University and to a garage in Sussex.
Her weaving and drawing with spider silk drew her to research the lost history of Europe's attempt to create a spider silk weaving industry and to the ancient and ongoing sacred use of spider webs in the South Pacific. Legends of schoolgirls tempting spiders with their singing inspired her own attempt to serenade a spider.
In this personal, lively and far ranging book, Eleanor Morgan transforms the way we think about spiders and the wonders of their webs.
What happens when one making animal meets another? Gossamer Days explores the strange web of spider-human relationships.
From gun sights to sticky tunics via acoustic lures, royal underwear and the mystery of the disappearing spider goats, Eleanor Morgan's intriguing and original book examines the strange, centuries long entanglement between humans and spiders.
Artist and writer Eleanor Morgan has spent a decade working with spiders and their silk. Her explorations have led her in search of one of the world's largest web weaving spiders, to the rooftops of Oxford University and to a garage in Sussex.
Her weaving and drawing with spider silk drew her to research the lost history of Europe's attempt to create a spider silk weaving industry and to the ancient and ongoing sacred use of spider webs in the South Pacific. Legends of schoolgirls tempting spiders with their singing inspired her own attempt to serenade a spider.
In this personal, lively and far ranging book, Eleanor Morgan transforms the way we think about spiders and the wonders of their webs.
- GenresNonfiction
167 pages, Paperback
Published November 8, 2016
About the author
Eleanor Morgan
10 books30 followersEleanor Morgan has written for a variety of publications including The Guardian, Times, Independent, GQ, Harper's Bazaar, The Believer and others. She also worked as a senior editor at Vice UK. Eleanor is the author of the book Anxiety for Beginners: A Personal Investigation. She is currently training to be a psychologist.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
January 4, 2017
A thoughtful, contemplative investigation into making creatures - both the spider and the human. Anecdotally rich, filled with beautiful artwork and photography, and the author has a lovely turn of phrase for a non-fiction book. Will absolutely make me consider spiders (and their webs) in a different light, and I already quite liked them.
May 13, 2021
An examination of the relationship between humans, spiders and the silk that they spin. The author looks at it from the viewpoint of history, art, music, folktales, and science. Some of the information is perplexing, and the book at points can seem repetitious and tedious, while at other times the information is absolutely fascinating.
January 20, 2022
If I read a better book this year it’ll have to be bloody good. Morgan has a really inviting way with words that makes things with the potential to be boring or over complicated very interesting and simple, yet mysterious!
August 27, 2024
Loved the conflation of spiders as weavers/humans as weavers, spiders as the primal shadow of humanity occupying dark corners of our forgotten places and crafting primordial vibrational patterns. Spiders have my heart
July 24, 2017
Absolutely brilliant!
February 9, 2019
Do you love spooders as much as I love spooders? Probably not, but possibly yes! If you’re at all interested in our arachnid friends, the silk they spin, the webs they weave, and what humans have done or simply attempted to do with that singular silken substance over the centuries, I highly recommend this fascinating book.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews