January 1067. When Odo of Bayeux decides to commission a wall hanging to celebrate his role in the conquest of Britain by his brother, William, Duke of Normandy, he cannot anticipate how this will change his life even more than the invasion itself. As his life becomes entangled with those of the women who embroider the hanging, he comes into conflict with his king and his God. Friends and family become enemies, enemies become lovers, nothing in life or in the hanging is what it seems. A powerful tale of sex, lies and embroidery, The Needle in the Blood, challenges the stereotypes of Norman and Anglo Saxon, exploring the effects of occupation on both sides and all classes of society. It also examines how women can make lives for themselves in the margins of patriarchal societies. Its characters are brought together through the making of the Bayeux Tapestry, one of the best known, yet most enigmatic, of mediaeval artefacts.