It is 1666 and the bubonic plague still haunts London. Just outside the old Roman walls, where they have lived for six good years, printers James and Ellie White have managed to escape its ravages. The city too has survived, but now sits in a cloud of wounds. After over a year, something like everyday life has been restored, and the preacher Solomon Eagle wants a book printed, in which he moralises on the meanings of the plague and the judgements of God.
James and Ellie accept his commission and set to work but James is plagued by a breathless trepidation. Then everything changes when the unexpected happens.Caught in the dream-like place between the past and their future, with former lives to unlive and a grief they can hardly speak, they must hold onto each other, and their love, in order to survive. Lyrical and visceral in equal measure, All the Colours you Cannot Name is a compelling and deeply tender story of love and death.