BLOG POST: Hopeful Artwork coming to Red Lion Books
Written by customer and friend of the shop, Eve Paterson who can be found on Instagram @e.f.paterson
Some of the best stories are the ones we write with others. The ones that wrap you up like your favourite jumper. The ones that kindle joy and hope for what might be…
Well, the Coat of Hopes is exactly one of those stories that is created in community, sewn with hope, and that you can quite literally wrap around you.
Some of the people who experienced the warmth of the Coat at COP26.
The Coat of Hopes began its journey in 2021 ahead of COP26, the UN Climate Summit in Glasgow. Knowing that thousands of influential, international leaders would be in attendance, Helen Locke started to imagine how she could represent the hopes of ordinary people at the summit.
As Helen reflected on climate change – which many of us associate with warming – it was actually the cold that captured her imagination: ‘The cold of not knowing what to do. The cold of not feeling a part of the story. The cold of sitting alone. The cold of being static with fear. The cold of having no voice. The cold of uncertainty about tomorrow.’
And so Helen set about creating a blanket coat that could warm those who are feeling the cold, wrapping up our fears, hopes, worries and dreams about our planet.
Once the basic Coat was created, it journeyed from the south coast on a pilgrimage towards COP26 with people offering their patches to weave into the fabric of the coat along the way. The pilgrimage continued to Glasgow ‘until on the final night before the great meeting began, seven women sewed all night long to include all the remaining patches, and the pilgrim Coat grew a train, and became regal.’
Each morning of COP26, the Coat of Hopes was walked to the gates so that presidents, climate activists, journalists, faith leaders, and everyone else entering the summit could wear it. As each person experienced a moment in the Coat’s warmth, Helen and other pilgrims would sing this song over them…
Ask me where I’m going
Ask me what is my purpose
Ask me what my name is
They call me the Coat of Hopes
Ever northwards to Glasgow, both worn and walked I’ll be
Upon the back of anyone who’ll choose to carry me
Through field, village and city, day by day from town to town
To where leaders are gathering like rooks before the storm
What is it that I’m taking to the one who will decide
If as a world we’ll do all in our power to survive
Only pieces of blanket I’ve collected on my path
With griefs, hopes, prayers, remembrances
for the lands through which I’ve passed
So here’s my invitation – come and make me who I’ll be
Come mark your hopes on blanket and I’ll sew them into me
A coat that’s made by everyone, for everyone to wear
To feel my warmth, and the weight of responsibility we share
Ask me where I’m going
Ask me what is my purpose
Ask me what my name is
They call me the Coat of Hopes
Over 700 people wore the Coat and added their hopes to its fibres during its nine-week pilgrimage from Newhaven to Glasgow and the following two weeks of COP26.
The ever-growing train of the Coat as it travelled through Kings Lynne in January 2025.
Today, the Coat of Hopes continues its pilgrimage across the UK having now traveled hundreds of miles and gained many, many more patches on its ever-growing train. Helen describes the Coat as ‘stitched from the ragged past into a gentle armour against a sharp future.’
It is the sharpness of this future that prompts the Coat guardians ‘to keep the Coat walking and working whilst the climate and ecological situation remains an emergency.’ And so the Coat keeps moving ‘through field, village and city, day by day’…
While the Coat has its own story, it also invites personal reflection on the stories of all who encounter it: What emotions stir in you as you reflect on the climate? How do you carry ‘the weight of responsibility we share’ for our planet? What hopes would you sew into the blanket?
The Coat of Hopes will be on display at Red Lion Books from Tuesday 22 April to Monday 28 April. Come along to marvel at its story and reflect on your own hopes for our planet.
The glory of the Coat spread out in Melton Mowbray last November.