The Secret Lives of Colour
On sale
9th October 2025
Price: £26
THE MODERN CLASSIC AND SUNDAY TIMES TOP 10 BESTSELLER.
NOW BOLDER, BRIGHTER AND EXPANDED INTO GLORIOUS TECHNICOLOUR WITH 25 NEW COLOURS.
‘Dazzling and vibrant’ Mail on Sunday
‘Extraordinarily full and interesting’ TLS
‘Gorgeous’ Guardian
‘Charming’ FT
‘Beautiful’ Daily Mail
‘Irresistible’ Country Living
The history of colour tells the vivid story of civilisation. From scarlet women to imperial purple, leaf green to the white paint that protected against the atom bomb, Picasso’s blue period to the pink Barbie claimed for feminism, The Secret Lives of Colour offers a bright thread throughout human history.
Kassia St Clair’s lifelong fascination with colours and where they come from (whether Van Gogh’s chrome yellow sunflowers or Dorothy’s ruby slippers) takes us on an unforgettable journey through our past, present and future.
‘An excellent, innovative and idiosyncratic cultural history that will colour your thinking’ Spectator
‘If you want to fall back in love with colour, read The Secret Lives of Colour’ Sunday Telegraph
NOW BOLDER, BRIGHTER AND EXPANDED INTO GLORIOUS TECHNICOLOUR WITH 25 NEW COLOURS.
‘Dazzling and vibrant’ Mail on Sunday
‘Extraordinarily full and interesting’ TLS
‘Gorgeous’ Guardian
‘Charming’ FT
‘Beautiful’ Daily Mail
‘Irresistible’ Country Living
The history of colour tells the vivid story of civilisation. From scarlet women to imperial purple, leaf green to the white paint that protected against the atom bomb, Picasso’s blue period to the pink Barbie claimed for feminism, The Secret Lives of Colour offers a bright thread throughout human history.
Kassia St Clair’s lifelong fascination with colours and where they come from (whether Van Gogh’s chrome yellow sunflowers or Dorothy’s ruby slippers) takes us on an unforgettable journey through our past, present and future.
‘An excellent, innovative and idiosyncratic cultural history that will colour your thinking’ Spectator
‘If you want to fall back in love with colour, read The Secret Lives of Colour’ Sunday Telegraph
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Reviews
A companionable, informative and lively guide to sights so easily taken for granted
A dazzling and vibrant history of colour, from Van Gogh's wilting yellow sunflowers to Turner's deadly green and Picasso's darkest period
A mind-expanding tour of the world without leaving your paintbox. Every colour has a story, and here are some of the most alluring, alarming, and thought-provoking. Very hard painting the hallway magnolia after this inspiring primer
A mix of science lore and delightful bookmaking, The Secret Lives of Colour is for reading, dipping and holding up against your curtains
A work of art in its own right... a beautiful tactile book filled with fascinating anecdotes about every colour from blonde to puce.
'An excellent, innovative and idiosyncratic cultural history that will colour your thinking...St Clair writes with style, energy and knowledge, explaining many mysteries succinctly and wittily, such as why a regular tomato is, for example, not red. Tomatoes appear red because that's the very wavelength their skin does not absorb. A 'red' tomato lies to tell the truth.. Snappily designed, with high production values...[The Secret Lives of Colour is] attractive and diverting.'
An irresistible lexicon of colours
Beautiful...See how a single colour can tell different stories across the globe.
Beautifully presented . . . The book is simply about colour. But colour is not simple. The history, geography, politics, scandals and influence of colours are documented here with a knowledgeable voice. With references from Jessica Rabbit to Lord Mountbatten, from Greek poets to slavery, this is a fascinating read
Brimming with interesting facts, historical insights and curious tales.
Charming
Even Farrow and Ball don't know as much about the secret lore of colour as Kassia St Clair... Almost every page throws up an unexpected detail and insight... Extraordinarily full and interesting...An ideal crib and a valuable resource not only for the design-conscious but for students.
From pink boys' clothes to blue warpaint; why orange spells danger and other colourful tales
I recommend the book to all creatives - and non-creatives, too!
If you want to fall back in love with colour, read The Secret Lives of Colour
Inspiring, compelling and beautifully designed . . . this book will appeal to anyone
A vivid exploration of the world of colour and our colourful world . . . St Clair is able to dance effortlessly through an astonishing range of subjects . . . What The Secret Lives of Colour offers really is, in some sense, a flash portrait of human civilisation, a zigzagging and unpredictable exploration of how significantly colour has shaped histories and disciplines, fuelled empires, changed the nature of war and caused species to flourish or face extinction
Extremely well-researched historically, each colour story is rich in detail and description, combining vignettes of historical actors with contextual background ranging from the ancient past to the present day. For anyone who was ever fascinated by a box of crayons, coloured pencils or the story of people in time, St Clair's book will not disappoint
Kassia St Clair is well-placed to observe the important place that colour has in human civilisation and development...Discursive and anecdotal... this book holds many surprises. Nothing is quite what it seems or how it is seen.
The weirdly fascinating history of your favourite hues from an unwittingly deadly, arsenic-tinged green to Van Gogh's favoured yellow
Well-researched and engaging
This is a gorgeous book