Kassia St Clair studied the history of women's dress and the masquerade during the eighteenth-century at Bristol and Oxford. She has since written about design and culture for the Economist, House & Garden, Quartz and 1843, and has had a column about colour in Elle Decoration since 2013. She lives in London.www.kassiastclair.com
If you want to fall back in love with colour, read The Secret Lives
of Colour
*SUNDAY TELEGRAPH*
A dazzling and vibrant history of colour, from Van Gogh's wilting
yellow sunflowers to Turner's deadly green and Picasso's darkest
period
*MAIL ON SUNDAY*
This is a gorgeous book
*GUARDIAN*
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.
*TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT*
The weirdly fascinating history of your favourite hues from an
unwittingly deadly, arsenic-tinged green to Van Gogh's favoured
yellow
*WIRED*
'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.'
*SPECTATOR*
Beautiful...See how a single colour can tell different stories
across the globe.
*DAILY MAIL*
A work of art in its own right... a beautiful tactile book filled
with fascinating anecdotes about every colour from blonde to
puce.
*THE POOL*
Charming
*FINANCIAL TIMES*
From pink boys' clothes to blue warpaint; why orange spells danger
and other colourful tales
*DAILY TELEGRAPH*
Inspiring, compelling and beautifully designed . . . this book will
appeal to anyone
*THE LADY*
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
*SIMON GARFIELD*
A companionable, informative and lively guide to sights so easily
taken for granted
*THE ECONOMIST*
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
*CHEMISTRY WORLD*
An irresistible lexicon of colours
*COUNTRY LIVING*
Well-researched and engaging
*HOUSE & GARDEN*
Brimming with interesting facts, historical insights and curious
tales.
*ELLE DECORATION*
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 OLDIE*
A mix of science lore and delightful bookmaking, The Secret Lives
of Colour is for reading, dipping and holding up against your
curtains
*The Tablet*
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
*Review 31*
I recommend the book to all creatives - and non-creatives, too!
*Dame Zandra Rhodes*
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
*GUARDIAN, Book of the Year*
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