A boy on the road to Burma's ruby mines. In the morning he dresses as a prince; the next day he becomes a monk for a month

While I was researching for the books I collected some wonderful snippets about colours and jewels that for one reason or another didn’t quite make the cut. The plan is to use this section to tell you about some of the ones that got away, and share some more of the lovely stories, quotes and notes I discovered.

Agates first.