Colour: Travels through the paintbox

I first came across Victoria Finlay's book COLOUR:  Travels through the paintbox when I started painting in 2002 and mixing my own colours.  The book reveals the history of the colours of the rainbow: when red paint was the colour of blood, orange was the poison pigment, blue as expensive as gold, and yellow made from the urine of cows, green was carried by yaks along the silk road, and how an entire nation was founded on the colour purple. Fascinating read.