The World Aflame

'Purists argue that colourising black and white photographs is sacrilege, but the world has always been in colour. Truth be told, monochrome is a contrivance. Human experience is always colourful' The Times.
The epic, harrowing and world-changing story — in words and colourized images — of global conflict from the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand to the obliteration of Hiroshima by the dropping of the first atom bomb. The World Aflame will embrace not only the total conflagrations of 1914–18 and 1939–45 and the international tensions, conflicting ideologies and malign economic forces that set them in train, but also the civil wars of the interwar period in Ireland and Spain, wars in Latin America, Britain's imperial travails in such places as Ireland, Somalia and Palestine, and events on the domestic 'fronts' of the belligerent nations.

Like The Colour of Time, The World Aflame is a collaboration between the gifted Brazilian artist Marina Amaral, and the leading British historian Dan Jones. Marina has created 200 stunning images, using contemporary photographs as the basis for her full-colour digital renditions. The accompanying narrative anchors each image in its context, weaving them into a vivid account of four decades of conflict that shaped the world we live in today.

A fusion of amazing pictures and well-chosen and informative words, The World Aflame offers a moving — and often terrifying — perspective on the bloodiest century in human history.

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Reviews for THE COLOUR OF TIME:

'The most breathtakingly colourised black-and-white pictures ever' Daily Mail.

'I have long considered colourisation sacrilege … after reading this book, I've changed my mind' The Times.

'[The Colour of Time] does something simple yet extraordinary. It takes black-and-white photos of historic events and colours them in. The effect is transformative' Daily Telegraph.

'A stunning book… Quite extraordinary' The Bookseller.

'There is something of The Wizard of Oz about Marina Amaral's photographs. She whisks us from black-and-white Kansas to shimmering Technicolor Oz… When you see Amaral's coloured portraits, you think: phwoar!… She changes the way we see a period or a person' Spectator.

'The effect of colour is far more transformative than you might imagine … [Amaral's] touched-up photographs look even more realistic, and closer to life, than a photograph taken yesterday… Extraordinary' Mail on Sunday.

'Pictures brought to life as you've never seen them before' Sunday Post.

'[Amaral] breathes new life, immediacy and human connection into black-and-white pictures. Even familiar shots are transformed in a breathtaking way… Even the casual reader leafing through these pages will be stopped in their tracks, connected to people from the past like never before — at last, in living colour' Irish News.

'Jones sketches with wry economy not only the historical context but the purpose of the photograph, from documented reality to shameless propaganda, from official portrait to candid snap… There is much to enjoy here. As a history book, it acts as a fleeting guide to a tumultuous century. But as an aesthetic experiment it is remarkably successful' Daily Express.

'What also elevates The Colour of Time above regular coffee table fare is the startling vivacity and impact of the photographs chosen, and the concise but focused and gripping texts by Jones, making the book a worthwhile cover-to-cover read as much as it serves as a showcase book to dip into at will' All About History.