Promotional Information

A captivating history of red hair through the ages, drawing on science, religion, politics, literature and art.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Way, Way Back, Many Centuries Ago Chapter 2: Black and White and Red All Over Chapter 3: Different for Girls Chapter 4: The Excrement of the Head Chapter 5: Sinners and Stunners Chapter 6: Rapunzel, Rapunzel Chapter 7: Freaks of Fashion Chapter 8: Redhead Days

About the Author

Jacky Colliss Harvey is a writer and editor. She studied English at Cambridge University and History of Art at the Courtauld Institute of Art. She has worked in museum publishing for the last 20 years and is a commentator and reviewer who speaks in both the UK and abroad on the arts and popular culture. Her red hair has also found her an alternative career as a life model and a film extra playing everything from a society lady in Atonement to a Parisian whore in Bel-Ami. She lives in London.

Reviews

Engagingly informative.
*Daily Mail*

Colliss Harvey is an engaging narrator. She sets scenes and creates immediacy. She writes eloquently, sometimes humorously, often rousingly.
*Independent*

[A] bright and breezy cultural history.
*The Daily Telegraph*

A feisty study of red hair through the ages.
*The Mail on Sunday*

An entertaining romp through the meaning and mythology of red hair.
*The Sunday Times*

I devoured the book. Red is an engaging read, playful and smart, packed with facts but never boggy with them. It is both a study and a celebration. It is also the perfect gift idea for any redheads in your life (you're welcome).
*The Big Issue*

A fascinating new book.
*Vogue US*

Red is an important, fascinating read for redheads - and others - everywhere.
*Elle US*

A fascinating new book.
*Guardian*

Jacky Colliss Harvey sets out to discover everything - what it takes to make a redhead, where in the world they come from and why they exist at all... [Her] project is personal... Red is a memoir as well as a study.
*Spectator*

Wide-ranging... Hard to resist.
*Country Life*

Harvey uses her hair color as a lens to explore the history of mankind... A colorful take on human perceptions and beliefs.
*New York Post*

Red: A Natural History of the Redhead examines the history of red hair through the ages, as well as focusing on modern-day attitudes to people with red hair.
*Irish Examiner*

She is as comfortable with the science as she is with cultural history... Jacky Collis Harvey is especially informative on red hair in painting.
*Oldie*

A light touch and a lively style... intellectually wide-ranging and searching when it comes to issues of discrimination.
*The Wall Street Journal (Europe)*

Jacky Colliss Harvey - herself a redhead - does a good job of trouncing some of the most flagrant myths.
*Press Association*

Red: A Natural History of the Redhead looks at the influence and symbolism of red hair through the ages and in aspects of life such as science, religion, politics, feminism and sexuality, advertising, literature and art.
*East Aglian*

Harvey is eloquent on the cultural expectations that surround redheads.
*The Times Literary Supplement*