Book of Colours
London, 1321
In a small stationer’s shop in Paternoster Row, three people are drawn together around the creation of a magnificent, illuminated prayer book. Even though the commission seems to answer the aspirations of each one of them, their secrets, desires and ambitions threaten its completion. As each struggles to see the book come into being, it will change everything they have understood about their place in the world.
Rich, deep, sensuous and full of life, Book of Colours is also, most movingly, a profoundly beautiful story about creativity and connection, and our instinctive need to understand our world and communicate with others through the pages of a book.
2019 ACT Book of the Year
2019 Canberra Critics’ Circle Award
Shortlisted: The Voss Award 2019
Book Reviews
“Robyn Cadwallader fashions words with the same delicate, colourful intensity that her 14th century illuminators brought to their illustrated manuscripts. Book of Colours brings alive a harsh but rich past, filled with the fantasies, fears, sly wit and tender longings of the medieval imagination.”
“In this extraordinary novel of illumination in medieval times, Cadwallader invites us into a world which seems distant, yet becomes recognisable. It is a place of pigment and power, of light and desire, of watching and being seen. A world where women live in the shadow of men, but still find their own ways of creating. Book of Colours shows the depth of possibility a book might hold – all the while shimmering with the beauty and fragility of an ancient gilded page.
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“Set in the turbulent, seething world of fourteenth century London, some sixty years on from the events of The Anchoress, Book of Colours is a story that will resonate profoundly with contemporary readers. Whereas in The Anchoress Robyn was exploring issues of women, desire, fear and shame, in this novel there is a greater focus on the role of women in the world – what power they have, how they wield it – and just how temporary and conditional it is.Importantly, Book of Colours is also the most moving and profoundly beautiful novel of the human impulse towards creativity and connection, and our instinctive need to understand our world and communicate with others through the pages of a book.
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“…you will be enchanted. [The] descriptions are so vivid, you can almost see the images:) And the preface to each chapter where in The Art of Illumination she explains how to treat the vellum, how to make the colours, oh, it’s just gorgeous.”
“With a touch of fantasy in the form of a gargoyle shadowing one of the characters, Book of Colours is a richly layered story that brings to life the ancient art of illumination against the volatile background that was London in the early 14th century…Book of Colours is a unique novel of quiet perfection, with a satisfying ending that steers away from fairytale happy ever afters and remains grounded in reality. I lingered over this novel, savouring its magnificence and appreciating Robyn’s enormous talent as an author.
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