Verbal Magazine

Colour for Living: How to Change Your Life with Colour

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I’m not sure what to make of this book. Sure, it’s glossy and beautifully made, packed full of interesting facts and excellent advice and on top of all this – delicious recipes too. But what on earth is it about and, more importantly, who is it for?

Dunne’s philosophy is that we each belong to one of nine ‘colour personality’ categories, ranging from red (number 1), to gold (number 9). Her chat about scientific research into colour-therapy and the mentions of both Meyers-Briggs and Jung in the introduction might lead one to believe that these personality types are going to be based on something vaguely scientific. Not so – apparently adding the digits in your birth date together until you are left with a single digit is quite as accurate as a personality test. I myself am indigo (personality number 6). Annoyingly - for the purposes of this review anyway - Dunne’s ‘Ms Indigo profile’ was actually pretty accurate. Let me be clear here, I am not the kind of woman who believes in horoscopes, so I’m probably not the ideal audience for a book of this type. However, in comparison to other, comparable nonsense, Dunne’s version is very harmless – even beneficial. The book itself is lovely and the advice and other miscellany is always of the positive and useful type.

Erin Lovett

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