All the Colour in the WorldAll the Colour in the World

Henry, born 1916, thin-as-sticks, nearsighted, is an obsessive doodler--copying illustrations from his Boy's Own magazines. Left in the care of a nurturing, Shakespeare-quoting grandmother, eight-year-old Henry receives as a gift his first set of colouring pencils (and a pocket knife for the sharpening). As he commits these colours to memory--cadmium yellow; burnt ochre; deep scarlet red--a passion for art, colour, and the stories of the great artists takes hold, and becomes Henry's unique way of seeing the world. It is a passion that will both haunt and sustain him on his journey through the century: from boyhood dreams on a summer beach to the hothouse of art academia and a love cut short by tragedy; from the psychological wounds of war to the redemption of unexpected love. Projected against a backdrop of iconic masterpieces--from the rich hues of the European masters to the technicolour magic of Hollywood--All the Colour in the World is Henry's story: part miscellany, part memory palace, exquisitely precise with the emotional sweep of a great modern romance.