This essay balanced similar contributions based on archive research by companion authors (Muriel Wilson for the British Council and Annabelle Campbell for the Crafts Council), with a contextual history on the craft movement in the 1970s by the academic Helen Rees Leahy. Alison Britton contributed an important essay on the practice of an artist's craft curatorship.

The book of essays was commissioned and funded by the Crafts Council. The aim was to create a contemporary first-time history of the related national craft collections established by the British Council, the Crafts Council and the Crafts Study Centre, and to exhibit work from these collections by the means of inviting a celebrated craft practitioner, Alison Britton, to make a selection.

Three by One is an exhibition of over 90 pieces of craft made by influential and pioneering makers, ranging from historic pieces from the Bernard Leach source collection, such as a 13th century Korean rice bowl to work made in the 21st century. The works on display are all selected from one of the three public collections; the British Council, Crafts Council and the Crafts Study Centre, by curator and potter, Alison Britton.

The book and the exhibition 'Three by One' were reviewed in Crafts and Ceramic Review and Ceramica Revista Internacional.