BBC Pride And Prejudice: The Official Coloring Book by Charlotte Rickards

Can I admit something? I’ve never watched the BBC adaptation of Pride And Prejudice that millions worldwide have swooned to for decades. Nothing against it: I’ve just never had the time! I’ve certainly watched enough clips and absorbed so much via cultural osmosis (augmented now by the research I did for this review,) that I feel I have a fairly good grasp of the miniseries tho.

Thus I was delighted — if not as much as an established fan of this adaptation in particular might have been — to receive this coloring book several weeks ago. I truly enjoy reading Jane Austen’s novels and applaud the spirit of the many media adaptations of her work. While I cannot speak to how strictly this coloring book hews to the BBC series’ timeline/storyboards, it does seem to follow the progression of the book closely in the way that it lays out the familiar scenes. Often, these scenes are juxtaposed with memorable quotes, decorated sampler-like, on the facing pages.

Charlotte Rickard’s linework is excellent in both regards. The movie stills are instantly recognizable, with just the right amount of texture lain down to assist the person coloring in these pages. Some of the art is more ornate than on other pages, but that is okay, as it allows artists to choose what kind of picture they wish to tackle next (if they’re not going to go from front to back, as I rarely do with coloring books.) I also quite admired Ms Rickard’s pattern work, and how the book featured all sorts of imagery — portraits, landscapes, architecture, lettering, fashion, decor — for the colorist to work with.

Perhaps the biggest surprise to me with this book was the quality of the paper! As I always do with the coloring books that cross my desk for review, I had to try out a number of media on it, to see how well the paper handles them. The surfaces are smooth and the base color bright white: excellent for pencil, pen and marker. I was truly delighted with how my colored pencils glided across the paper.

However! Because each side of the page is printed on in this book (a bit more on this later,) I had to test for ink bleed through. Tbh, I didn’t have the highest expectations here, so was both startled and pleased to discover that there was zero bleed when using my Posca paint markers, my Faber-Castell Albrecht Durer watercolor markers or my Faber-Castell Pitt artist pens. The one medium that did bleed through a bit were my inexpensive IKEA felt-tip markers, so keep that in mind when coloring in this book, if you want to work on the reverse pages too.

Which leads back to my only complaint about this otherwise excellent volume: the fact that each page has art on it. This is fine if you use non-bleed media, and wish to keep the book intact. I know I’m not the only colorist who enjoys pulling out particularly beautiful pages and framing them for display, however. Alas that this volume does not lend itself well to that purpose! Perhaps, tho, this is merely the publisher’s sneaky way of getting you to buy two copies, lol.

I had a lot of fun with this book and highly recommend it both for fans of the series and for those who enjoy coloring on quality paper. It’s certainly made me want to check out the show the next time I have six free hours!

BBC Pride And Prejudice: The Official Coloring Book by Charlotte Rickards was published today March 24 2026 by Ten Speed Press and is available from all good booksellers, including