We had the great good fortune of sitting next to Edward Bulmer at a dinner, and this signed copy and friendship is the happy result of that evening. He is one of the great living authorities on historic paint colour — his knowledge of how colour has been used in English interiors across the centuries is genuinely encyclopaedic, and his passion for natural pigments and careful historical research is immediately apparent in conversation. This book is the fullest expression of that passion: a history of colour and a practical argument for using it more boldly, with rooms throughout that feel deeply, warmly alive. A rare thing to have.