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Colour
On sale
30th December 2014
Price: £12.99
‘Pure pleasure’
Independent
‘A rich read’
Evening Standard
‘A delight’
Sunday Telegraph
THE REMARKABLE STORY OF VICTORIA FINLAY’S QUEST TO UNCOVER THE MANY SECRETS HIDDEN INSIDE THE PAINTBOX.
On her travels she visited remote Central American villages where women still wear skirts dyed with the purple tears of sea snails; learned how George Washington obsessed about his green dining room while he should have been busy with matters of state; and investigated the mystery of Indian Yellow paint, said to have been made from the urine of Indian cows force-fed with mango leaves.
From mascara to nomadic carpets and pillar boxes, the story of colour is the story of the efforts of artists and artisans to reproduce the rainbow – and the impact their work has had on the world.
Independent
‘A rich read’
Evening Standard
‘A delight’
Sunday Telegraph
THE REMARKABLE STORY OF VICTORIA FINLAY’S QUEST TO UNCOVER THE MANY SECRETS HIDDEN INSIDE THE PAINTBOX.
On her travels she visited remote Central American villages where women still wear skirts dyed with the purple tears of sea snails; learned how George Washington obsessed about his green dining room while he should have been busy with matters of state; and investigated the mystery of Indian Yellow paint, said to have been made from the urine of Indian cows force-fed with mango leaves.
From mascara to nomadic carpets and pillar boxes, the story of colour is the story of the efforts of artists and artisans to reproduce the rainbow – and the impact their work has had on the world.
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Reviews
[Victoria Finlay's] curiosity is inexhaustible, her reading wide, and her writing style a delight
It's pure pleasure to join this gutsy arts reporter-cum-scholar on her quest for historical pigments and dyes around the world
A highly companionable guide, adventurous and romantic
Full of forgotten facts and beguiling anecdotes . . . it would be hard to confront a painting ever again without seeing in it a kind of coded map of the world
You get your money's worth and change to spare . . . Both picaresque and picturesque, it's a rich read.
Packed with stories, anecdotes and adventures. A full rainbow . . . as vivid as the colours themselves
A treasure trove of human history and obsession . . . the breadth of research and insight is dazzling.