Althea McNish - Queen of Colour

It's nearly five years since the Anglo Trinidadian textile designer, Althea McNish, died in near obscurity in London. In that time her reputation and her standing has grown dramatically and she is now recognized around the world as the one of the first black designers of international standing. There has been a retrospective exhibition of her work, the Victoria & Albert Museum highlights her work, and there is a biography of this remarkable woman in progress. Althea McNish as a designer was a magician of colour, a woman who brought the light and the hues of the Caribbean to a drab post-war London. Queen Elizabeth wore her dress fabrics, cruise liners sailed with her murals on their walls and she changed the lives of millions with her textile designs. This episode takes another look at the life of Althea McNish. For more information about this episode and pictures of the people and places mentioned in this episode please go to And if you would like to find out about Friends of Haptic & Hue with an extra podcast every month hosted by Jo Andrews and Bill Taylor – here's the link:

You can listen to Althea McNish - Queen of Colour online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Althea McNish - Queen of Colour is an episode from Haptic & Hue by Jo Andrews.

This episode is 31:38 long.

This episode was published on Jan 1, 2026.

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