The highly acclaimed memoir of a renowned artisan with a new introduction by Jenny Uglow, The Lost Carving reveals the inspirational secrets of wood and craft. On a chance visit to St James's church, Piccadilly, David Esterly was awestruck by the delicate beauty and ambition of master carver Grinling Gibbons’s limewood decorations. The encounter changed the course of Esterly's life as he devoted himself to these lost techniques.

By 1986, when a fire at Hampton Court Palace destroyed much of Gibbons’s masterpiece, Esterly was the only candidate to restore his idol’s work to glory, though the experience forced him to question his abilities and delve deeply into the subtle skills of making. 

'A wonderful book... riveting' Edmund de Waal

'An illuminating and exhilarating book, as intricate and wonderfully engaging as the carvings that lie at its heart' TLS, Best Books of the Year

'A beautifully written account of craft and inspiration' The New Republic, Best Books of the Year

'One of those gentle quest memoirs in which the reader becomes an intimate... Esterly writes evocatively... Full of fine-grained and engaging detail' Mail on Sunday

'A beautiful, intricate mediation on creativity and discovery, on fire and rebirth, on culture and history. Truly, this is a story to be pored over with love and admiration' Elizabeth Gilbert

'Every now and then there comes along a memoir that stands out for its beauty, its ability to charm, and its insights into a life given over to art. This lovely book about woodcarving is just such a work. Entrancing' Alexander McCall Smith

‘A big moment for the obscure world of wood carving' Wall Street Journal

David Esterly (1944–2019) was widely considered one of the world’s foremost craftsmen of our era. He studied at Cambridge University and from the 1970s on devoted himself professionally to woodcarving. He restored the Gibbons carvings at Hampton Court Palace and curated the V&A Gibbons exhibition in 1998. He has been profiled in the Economist, Financial Times, New Yorker and New York Times.

Jenny Uglow is a highly acclaimed critic and biographer, and the author of numerous prize-winning non-fiction books, including The Lunar Men, Nature's Engraver, A Gambling Man, Mr Lear and Sybil & Cyril.