The Paintbox Of Everything

An exploration of intergenerational cancer, a patients eye view of cancer treatment in a big city hospital.

An exploration of intergenerational cancer, a patients eye view of cancer treatment in a big city hospital.

'A rare and wonderful book... I could not be more enthusiastic.' Simon Winchester 'A treasure trove of human history and obsession...the breadth of research and insight is dazzling.' Glasgow Herald Colour unlocks the history of the colours of the rainbow, and reveals how paints came to be invented, discovered, traded and used. This remarkable and beautifully written book, part travelogue part narrative history, remembers a time when red paint was really the colour of blood, when orange was the poison pigment, blue as expensive as gold, and yellow made from the urine of cows force-fed with mangoes. It looks at how green was carried by yaks along the silk road, and how an entire nation was founded on the colour purple. 'A highly companionable guide, adventurous and romantic' Independent on Sunday Exciting, richly informative, and always surprising, Colour lifts the lid on the historical palette and unearths an astonishing wealth of stories about the quest for colours, and our efforts to understand them.

Marietta wants to paint like her father. But Marietta is a girl, and to work and study with her father she must disguise herself in boy's clothing.

A Caldecott Honor Book Vasya Kandinsky was a proper little boy: he studied math and history, he practiced the piano, he sat up straight and was perfectly polite. And when his family sent him to art classes, they expected him to paint pretty houses and flowers—like a proper artist. But as Vasya opened his paint box and began mixing the reds, the yellows, the blues, he heard a strange sound—the swirling colors trilled like an orchestra tuning up for a symphony! And as he grew older, he continued to hear brilliant colors singing and see vibrant sounds dancing. But was Vasya brave enough to put aside his proper still lifes and portraits and paint . . . music? In this exuberant celebration of creativity, Barb Rosenstock and Mary GrandPré tell the fascinating story of Vasily Kandinsky, one of the very first painters of abstract art. Throughout his life, Kandinsky experienced colors as sounds, and sounds as colors—and bold, groundbreaking works burst forth from his noisy paint box. Backmatter includes four paintings by Kandinsky, an author’s note, sources, links to websites on synesthesia and abstract art.

In Home Truths, Mavis Gallant draws us into the tricky labyrinth of human behaviour, while offering readers her unique, clear-eyed vision of Canadians both at home and abroad. Ranging in time and place from small-town Quebec during the Depression, to Geneva and Paris in the 1950s, to contemporary Vancouver Island, these stories explore the remorseless cruelty of children, the tensions that affect all families, the dangerous but endearing naïveté of young girls in love with Europe, and the terrible distances that divide people who love each other. And in the celebrated “Linnet Muir” stories, Gallant draws on her own experiences to portray a sensitive and alarmingly perceptive young girl growing up in Montreal in the 1930s and 1940s. Incisive, darkly humorous, and compassionate, Home Truths is a vibrant collection of stories from one of our finest writers.

From the author of the bestselling Jalna series. Shaw Manifold is a born forester, of hardy stock. A fatherless boy of nine, he was brought up in the rugged environment of his grandfather’s farm, a lonely youngster in the midst of callous elders. His only ally was his mother, Cristabel, whose work removed her to a distant city. Mother and son lived for their reunions: their private world was a tortured and nostalgic place, but its love braced Shaw against the exhaustion of overwork and the interminable feud with his grandparents from which he escaped to his school of forestry and the Canadian woods. Then at the outset of a brilliant career he found he had overreached his strength. In sickbed and sanatoriums he began to fight the greatest battle of his life. With his courage and endurance, Shaw tells of his relationship with his mother, of his defiance of the Gowers, of his love for Elspeth Blair, and of the expeditions that led to his greatest challenge yet.

Discover hidden gems from the bestselling author of the Jalna series. A farm inheritance cultivates an illicit love affair. An orphan finds a home with two sisters and their writer lodger and soon discovers strange and frightening events. Three motherless boys living at boarding school find freedom in their limitless imaginations. With these stories, Mazo de la Roche explores the lives of a fascinating and endearing set of characters. Discover beloved author Mazo de la Roche again with these enduring classics. Nine-book bundle includes: Explorers of the Dawn Possession Delight Lark Ascending Growth of a Man The Two Saplings A Boy in the House The Song of Lambert Bill and Coo