Snowflake Seashell Star

Colouring Adventures in Numberland

Alex Bellos

Mathematics is a world of eternal truths and abstract perfection. Exploring its transcendent beauty can be a spiritual experience
Snowflake Seashell Star by Alex Bellos (Paperback ISBN 9781782117889) book cover

Available as Paperback

Alex Bellos, bestselling author of Alex’s Adventures in Numberland, joins the meditative colouring book craze with this unique and inspiring mathematical colouring book

Joyful contemplation of mathematical patterns has long been part of the human experience, from the philosophers of Ancient Greece to the artists of the Renaissance, via Islamic design and Hindu mandalas. Now, Alex Bellos, the bestselling author of Alex’s Adventures in Numberland, takes you on a calming and colourful journey into the magical world of mathematics.

Snowflake, Seashell, Star is full of intricate and divinely beautiful illustrations, using patterns such as loops, waves and spirals, created by Alex Bellos in collaboration with his friend and mathematical artist, Edmund Harriss. Stretch your artistic talents and embrace mathematics’ aesthetic and conceptual exquisiteness.

In 80 glorious images, Alex will teach you how to convey the wonder of mathematics through colour and design. Snowflake, Seashell, Star is an incredible celebration of the overlaps between mathematics and art, learning and play, concentration and calm.


“An intricate, geeky colouring book for adults”
independent On Sunday

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“Alex Bellos’ and Edmund Harriss’ mathematical colouring book is great. It puts the beauty of maths, famous but elusive, at the tip of anyone’s pen. And you’re not condemned to admire that beauty from a distance. With lines and numbers there to help, you can actually “create” it, even if you’re not a gifted artist or mathematician”
+ Plus Magazine

“A beautiful maths colouring book offering young and old alike the joy of patterns that are pleasing and rigorous, regular and creative, all at the same time”
CÉdric Villani

“This is big fun. Fun and awe … Just looking at these pages is a treat - they have a life all their own, even before colour is applied … Friendly and accessible … A colouring book with a sharp new angle”
the Papercraft Post Blog

“I wouldn’t have expected anything less from maths adventurer Bellos and mathematical artist and tiling fan Harriss, whose personalities both come through in the book - from the beautiful illustration to the playful style … The range of types of maths on display is super … A beautiful object”
aperiodical Blog


Alex Bellos

Alex Bellos is the author of the bestselling popular maths books Alex’s Adventures in Numberland and Alex Through the Looking-Glass. He is the Guardian’s maths and puzzles blogger and a regular science presenter on BBC Radio 4. He was the Guardian’s foreign correspondent in South America, where he wrote a book on Brazilian football, and was Pelé’s ghost writer.

Edmund Harriss is a well-known British mathematical artist. He has a PhD in maths from Imperial College, London, and is currently an assistant professor at the University of Arkansas. His research has appeared in Nature and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science. He has led workshops at the Museum of Mathematics in New York and is Academic Director of Epsilon Camp, a summer camp in the US for mathematically gifted 8-11-year-olds.