Books.
The Secret Lives of Colour: Expanded Edition
The modern classic, now bolder, brighter and with twenty-five new colours.
The history of colour tells the vivid story of civilisation. From scarlet women to imperial purple, leaf green to the white paint that protected against the atom bomb, Picasso’s blue period to the pink Barbie claimed for feminism, The Secret Lives of Colour offers a bright thread throughout human history.
Liberty
Published to celebrate 150 years of Liberty of London in 2025, this beautiful book explores the history of the firm through its extraordinary range of innovative fabric designs. ‘Liberty: Design. Pattern. Colour.’ places fabrics in the context of wider design history – from the rise of the aesthetic and Arts & Crafts movements to London of the Swinging Sixties. ‘Textiles expert and cultural historian Kassia St Clair delves into the firm’s extensive archives to place its world-famous fabrics in the context of a wider design history’ (Elle Decor). St. Clair’s book gorgeously illustrates the long legacy of design elements and how they have evolved (Selvedge).
The Secret Lives
of Colour.
Sunday Times top-five bestseller
BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week
The Secret Lives of Colour tells the unusual stories of seventy-five fascinating shades, dyes, and hues. From blonde to ginger, the brown that changed the way battles were fought to the white that protected against the plague, Picasso’s blue period to the charcoal on the cave walls at Lascaux, acid yellow to kelly green, and from scarlet women to imperial purple, these surprising stories run like a bright thread throughout history. In this book, Kassia St. Clair has turned her lifelong obsession with colors and where they come from (whether Van Gogh’s chrome yellow sunflowers or punk’s fluorescent pink) into a unique study of human civilization. Across fashion and politics, art and war, the secret lives of colour tell the vivid story of our culture.
The Golden Thread.
Sunday Times Book of the Year
BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week
Shortlisted for the Somerset Maugham Award
From colourful threads found on the floor of an ancient Georgian cave to the Indian calicoes that fuelled the Industrial Revolution, The Golden Thread illuminates the myriad and fascinating histories behind the cloths that came to define human civilisation—the fabric, for example, that allowed mankind to shatter athletic records, and the textile technology that granted us the power to survive in space. Exploring the enduring association of textiles with “women’s work,” Kassia St. Clair “spins a rich social history…that also reflects the darker side of technology” (Rachel Newcomb, Washington Post).
The Race to
the Future.
New York Times bestseller
Barnes & Noble Book of the Month
BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week
10 June 1907, Peking. Five cars set off in a desperate race across two continents. Their destination: Paris. The world of 1907 is poised between the old and the new: communist regimes will replace imperial ones in China and Russia; the telegraph is transforming modern communication, the car will soon displace the horse and many millions will become embroiled in the First World War. The Race to the Future is the incredible true story of the quest against the odds that helped shape the world we live in today. Described as ‘fabulous and captivating’ (Literary Review), ‘vivid’ (New York Times), ‘thrilling’ (Country Life) and ‘glorious’ (Philip Ball).
