A bistable display device comprises two cell walls enclosing a sheet having a plurality of cavities each containing a rotatable bicoloured sphere within a liquid crystal material carrier (15), and electrodes for applying an electrical field. The spheres and cavities are provided with a surface alignment which imposes a substantially unidirectional director alignment on the liquid crystal material in contact with them. The elastic distortion free energy of the liquid crystal material in each cavity is arranged to be zero when the preferred direction of the suspended spheres coincides with that of the surrounding cavity, e.g. black upwards. It is also zero when the sphere is rotated through 180.degree. to present its opposite hemisphere which has a contrasting optical appearance, e.g. black downwards. Between these two states, there is an energetic barrier determined by the elastic constants of the liquid crystal which provides both a threshold for switching and improved bistability. During production of the sheet, alignment may be enhanced by application of an electric or magnetic field during curing or cooling of the components. The display may be addressed in a known multiplexed manner.