The Book Of Colour

A Family Memoir

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'Wandering through dreams and nightmares from Praslin Islands to Mauritius and finally to England, the author unfolds the troubled lives of her forbears, cursed by racial prejudice, sexual inhibition and recurrent mental illness. This first novel is a powerfully and cleverly written expurgation of personal feelings, drawing the reader into a landscape like that of a Dali painting' - Eileen Cowey, Scotland on Sunday

The Book of Colour is about childhood, about madness, about the fear of miscegenation - and about a pig. It establishes Julia Blackburn as one of the most original English writers since Chatwin. It was shortlisted for The Orange Prize 1996.

Her narrative vibrates with symbolism and portent. Every event, every encounter, every object shimmers with talismanic power
Michiko Kakutani, New York Times

About Julia Blackburn

Julia Blackburn has written a number of books of non-fiction, fiction and poetry. The Three of Us won the J. R. Ackerley Award, Threads won the East Anglian Book of the Year Award and the New Angle Prize, Time Song was shortlisted for the Wainwright Book Prize, and Thin Paths was shortlisted for the Costa Prize for Biography. Her two novels, The Book of Colour and The Leper’s Companions, were both shortlisted for the Women’s Prize. She lives in Suffolk and Italy.

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