Firing Earth

'Sitting down at the wheel and grasping a ball of clay, I can travel back in time. I'm compelled to slow down to the pace of my ancestors.'

Did you know the potter's wheel was invented before any other kind of wheel? Or that in the seventeenth century people believed eating clay was good for you? Or that Royal Doulton started off as a sewage pipe company?

And which famous potter said 'To make pottery is an adventure'?

All this and so much more is in Pottery Throwdown judge Keith Brymer Jones's very personal journey through the history of ceramics. From Roman kilns in North London to urinals in Scotland, wine jars to ink pots, Keith enthrals and entertains us with his knowledge of pottery and potters, what they made and how they did it. He shows us how ceramics have played an important role in cultures and economies throughout the world - and how his own life is inextricably linked to an industry that demands the same of its makers today as it did thousands of years ago: creativity, patience, respect for the material, and a respect for nature itself.

You will never look at a mug in the same way again.