The Colour Of Milk by Nell Leyshon: review The Colour of Milk is written in short sentences, with longer passages joined by lots of "ands." It appears to have the simplicity of a reading scheme. Which is precisely the point. Because this is a story about literacy - or the achieving of literacy. For Mary, the book's narrator, the cost of gaining that knowledge is high. Leyshon's great skill in this novel is to convey both Mary's outward personality and her inner thoughts through the same narrative voice. In Mary's own concise reporting of events we see all her relationships in their nuanced colours. Her quick wit and sharp tongue is revealed when she is bickering with her three sisters. Her more private, thoughtful nature shows in her bond with her grandfather. Her resilience is made clear whenever her father enters the picture. And within Mary's narration we also see the various facets of her emerging personality - the matter-of-fact country girl, the alert adolescent, the newly-literate young adult. But the year is 1831, and Mary's real influence on her writing is The Bible. She prefaces each section with a passage of "witness," because the driving purpose of her account is to reveal the truth behind the terrible events that have unfolded. At first, when Mary learns a few letters she is excited - "my mind ... would not stay still for it was like a bee in summer"- and there is a sensuality in the way she learns the letters by tracing them with her fingers. But this is soon accompanied by a sensuality of a different kind as she learns to form an "s" - " like a snake." And so comes her fall - but Leyshon is not giving us a simplistic metaphor for a loss of grace. The focus here is on the balance of power between the teacher - the possessor of knowledge -and the learner, and the terrible consequences that come of abusing that delicate relationship. In the very end, Mary can only take one autonomous decision to prevent the possibility of a cycle of unhappiness perpetuating itself. But it is a terrible one to have to make. The Colour of Milk starts deceptively quietly, describing a life of rural hardships and limited prospects, but bit by bit, letter by letter, it reveals a world of potential that is shattered by human fallibility. The Colour of Milk by Nell Leyshon (Penguin Fig Tree) You can purchase the book at the Telegraph Bookshop.