Alternatively, she might have been a farmer or a cheese maker, a mercer or a haberdasher, a basket weaver or a lace maker or a stocking knitter.

She sent him photographs of herself and employed a basket weaver to go to his rooms and teach him the craft.

This led to employment as a cotton picker, bricklayer, and basket weaver: by 1966 he was working as a farm manager.

Born in 1926, he lived in a community of labourers and fishermen, basket weavers and minor officials, who later became characters in much of his fiction.

People and artists who weave baskets are called basket makers and basket weavers.