Book review: The Button Box

HAVING been a young child, like many others, who loved rooting though my own mother’s tin of hundreds of different mismatched buttons, I dived straight into Lynn Knight’s latest book The Button Box.

Lynn Knight

Chatto & Windus, £15.99;

ebook, £9.99

Knight leads us into the past lives of a selection of buttons once belonging to a variety of clothing items worn and often handmade by members of her family since the early Victorian era.

Each trinket of the past comes to life, bringing with it the stories of how they adorned each piece of clothing they helped fasten or support.

It gives a nice nostalgic and informative look into the history of fashion, the Great War, and even a few comical anecdotes on subjects such as sex and relationships.

I found this a great read for all ages and a genuine insight into the social history of different times.