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ALMOST UNDERWEAR

TWO PLANETS, ONE MOON AND ONE ORDINARY PIECE OF CLOTH

AUTHOR AND ILLUSTRATOR JONATHAN ROTH PUBLISHER LITTLE, BROWN & COMPANY PRICE £14.99 / $18.99 RELEASE OUT NOW

Muslin is a type of plainwoven cotton fabric that has a broad range of uses depending on its quality and weighting. It can be used to make fine, floaty ladies dresses suitable for a period drama, for example, though most ordinary muslin can expect to end up in a first-aid kit or a baby-changing bag. Their fate is to staunch blood flow on open wounds or mop up baby vomit, and just over a century ago, muslin might also have been stitched into undergarments. But much bigger things were in store for one bolt of muslin cloth purchased in a store in Ohio in 1903. It was bought by Orville and Wilbur Wright, then used to cover the wings of their glider that made the world’s first successful manned flight on 17 December the same year. That’s probably the biggest claim to fame any bit of fabric could have made at the time – but swatches of muslin from the Kitty Hawk’s wings had an even greater destiny.