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Book of Colours

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Book of Colours

By: Robyn Cadwallader
Narrated by: Katy Sobey
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About this listen

From Robyn Cadwallader, author of the internationally acclaimed novel The Anchoress, comes a deeply profound and moving novel of the importance of creativity and the power of connection, told through the story of the commissioning of a gorgeously decorated medieval manuscript, a Book of Hours.

London, 1321: In a small shop in Paternoster Row, three people are drawn together around the creation of a magnificent book, an illuminated manuscript of prayers, a book of hours. Even though the commission seems to answer the aspirations of each one of them, their own 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. In many ways, this is a story about power - it is also a novel about the place of women in the roiling and turbulent world of the early 14th century; what power they have, how they wield it, and just how temporary and conditional it is.

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.

"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." (Sarah Dunant)

"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." (Eleanor Limprecht)

"Extraordinary...a real sensory experience...suffused with colours." (ABC Radio National - The Bookshelf)

©2018 HarperCollins Publishers Australia pty Ltd (P)2018 HarperCollins Publishers Australia pty Ltd
Fiction Historical Fiction

Critic 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." (Sarah Dunant)

"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." (Eleanor Limprecht)

"Extraordinary ... a real sensory experience ... suffused with colours" (ABC Radio National - The Bookshelf)

What listeners say about Book of Colours

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The historical background and the details of illustrations and the mixing colours is very impressive.

I liked the description of the luminaries commitments to their artwork as well as their interactions.
The description of the class system shows that we have progressed a lot.

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Very moving and evocative.

Enchanting and haunting. I deeply enjoyed this book and the pictures it formed in my mind of the limnar’s workshop and the streets of medieval London.

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In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.