The first novel for five years from one of Britain’s most celebrated men of letters tells the epic story of the Wedgwood family. In 1774, Josiah Wedgwood, master craftsman possessed with a burning scientific vision, embarks upon the thousand-piece ‘Frog’ service for Catherine the Great. Josiah’s nephew Tom journeys to America to buy clay from the Cherokee for this exquisite china. Tom is caught up in the American rebellion, and falls for a Cherokee woman who will come to play a crucial role in Josiah’s late, great creation – the Portland Vase. A novel of epic scope, rich in warmth, intellect and humanity, The Potter’s Hand explores the lives and loves of a great British dynasty, whose travails are both ordinary – births, deaths, marriages, opium addiction, depression – and utterly extraordinary.