The gloves are off as the general of generations, Professor James Daybell, and the seadog of centuries, Dr Sam Willis, take us on a rip-roaring ride through the unexpected history of the glove. From the Holy Roman Empire to one of Japan’s most popular sports. Join the intrepid two as they handle with kid gloves, relics of remembrance, challenges to masculinity, weapons of death, signals of availability, and symbols of status. If you thought gloves were just to keep your hands warm, well you might want to consider your next purchase of a pair, or even one, carefully. Now where did I drop that glove…?

‘See, how she leans her cheek upon her hand!

O, that I were a glove upon that hand,

That I might touch that cheek!’ (Romeo and Juliet, Act 2, Scene 2)