Mauve: How one man invented a colour that changed the world by Simon
Garfield, Faber and Faber, £9.99, ISBN 0571201970
THE EYES of a French empress made a fortune for William Henry Perkin. Aged
18, he stumbled across a pigment that turned silk a beautifully vivid shade of
purple. But the market for his new dye was limited until Eugénie, wife of
Napoleon III, decided that mauve matched her eyes. Suddenly, the French fashion
world went crazy for the colour, and the whole of Europe followed.
For some people, it was all too much. Walking on a Sunday in…
