RaveThe Times Literary Supplement (UK)... the principal delights of the book are the more recherché cul-de-sacs into which Fox delves ... The World According to Colour fairly shimmers with Fox’s eye for arresting facts and anecdotes ... Despite his instinct for freshness and vivacity, Fox is occasionally less deft. His preface opens with the dispatch of a greenbottle fly with a rolled-up magazine, a scene he apparently observed in uncanny detail aged six and which led him to start seeing colour (emphasis his). It is an odd way of establishing his bona fides with the reader, and one of the few occasions where his knack for detail leads him astray ... these are quibbles. The World According to Colour, although in parts perhaps too academic for a general reader, is an enlightening, enjoyable and deeply researched cultural history of colour. It is also funny, particularly when poking fun at puritanical chromophobes like Joseph Duveen and his ilk.
