In Scotland and Ireland the frequency is as high as 13 per cent and 10 per cent respectively.

It is more common (2-6 per cent) in northern and western Europe, or in those with that ancestry. Red hair is due to a recessive gene (a faulty version of the MC1R gene, or melanocortin receptor, that sits on chromosome 16 – bet you’re sorry you asked) and occurs in just 2 per cent of the global population.

“There was a fascinating, time-travelling, There was a fascinating, time-travelling, multicultural detective story here, and I was determined to tell it as well and in as authoritative and definitive and graspable a way as I could.” “I came back home and had filled three notebooks within a month. “I was sitting in a sales conference watching another publisher present their history list and was amusing myself by seeing if I could come up with ideas for suitable titles for them,” she says. Colliss Harvey, who works in publishing, describes the conception of the book as a “red-lightbulb-over-head” moment. While I was reading it, I was struck by how astonishing it is that the history of red hair hasn’t been chronicled before – which is the mark of a good idea, I guess. However, in terms of providing an encyclopaedia of all things ginger, Red takes the biscuit. We are not – contrary to popular internet belief – becoming extinct. We require larger doses of anaesthetics and are more resistant to pain-blockers (I’ve often blamed my redheadedness for the amount I have to spend on wine). If you’re a redhead, you’ve probably gathered a few facts over the years – snaffled them when you can. It is also the perfect gift idea for any redheads in your life (you’re welcome). Red is an engaging read, playful and smart, packed with facts but never boggy with them. When you grow up with red hair you feel different, and that’s not always a positive (at least it wasn’t in Bury during the 1980s). Colliss Harvey, a redhead herself, describes it as “the single most defining characteristic of my life”.

Because having red hair is a funny thing. Come to think of it, maybe it was even more than that – maybe it was one of those “that IS me” moments. One of those real “that’s for me” moments. When I saw it mentioned on Twitter back in summer, I pounced. Jacky Colliss Harvey’s Red: A Natural History of the Redhead studies redheads throughout the ages – from Boudicca to Benedict Cumberbatch. I regularly get (over)excited about books, but I can’t remember the last time I was quite so excited as I was about one that came out earlier this month.

Red a natural history of the redhead