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In The Colour of Milk, Nell Leyshon has recreated the tragically beautiful, overwhelming microcosm populated by characters such as Mary's father, who curses life for not giving him sons, her grandfather, who feigns illness to see his beloved Mary one more time, and Edna, the vicar's maid who keeps three shrouds under her bed, one for herself, the others for a husband and a son she does not have. These characters are all framed by a bucolic setting that flows with the seasons and the labours of the farm, brought to life with heart-wrenching innocence by Mary's determination to leave a written record of the destiny she has acquired and can no longer relinquish. 

'The Colour of Milk is a book written with the throbbing urgency of a small classic – small because of the compactness and concentration of its universe. It is a powerful story that plunges into the depths of a life that is dissolved in writing and can only be recovered in the silence of our reading. A long, shuddering silence, full of anger. But also a silence of hope and admiration.'

– Valeria Luiselli

Nell Leyshon is a British playwright and novelist born in Glastonbury, Somerset. Her first novel, Black Dirt (2004), was long-listed for the Orange Prize and runner up for the Commonwealth Prize. In 2008, she published Devotion. Leyshon was awarded the Evening Standared Theatre Award for her theatrical work Confort Me With Apples, and her work Bedlam was the first female-written work for Shakespeare's Globe Thatre. She also received the Richard Imison Award for her first thatrical work for BBC Radio.