'Glorious . . . anecdote and information accumulate with marvellous abundance and a passionate sense of the fascination of jewels' Spectator

Amber is the tears of prehistoric trees.

One gem links Queen Victoria and a skeleton.

Cleopatra drank a pearl to win a bet.

A man turned into a diamond.

When we put on jewels, what are we really wearing?

Victoria Finlay travels the world to tell the true stories of these miraculous oddities of nature.

'Filled with eye-catching incidents and stories . . . Finlay's evidence glitters from every page' Sunday Telegraph

'A fascinating and exhaustive travelogue' Times Literary Supplement