Create, write and design the third book that would follow Herbarium and The Grammar of Spice in this particular published series. A comprehensive guide to one of the world’s hottest ingredients, An Anarchy of Chillies tells the story of 100 varieties of chilli in a red-hot riot of colour and flavour.

Open up this guide to identifying, growing and preparing chillies, and enjoy the accompanying illustrations and recipes that reflect the vibrancy and depth of the chosen peppers inside.

Readers can explore which chillies work with best other foods, from chocolate to fruit and larder staples. Plus, they can also find practical advice on how to prepare chilli peppers at home, from roasting and smoking to grinding and making their own chilli flakes.

In addition to the hardback book, we also created a range of notecards, wrapping paper and postcards, all featuring our colourfully layered illustrations. This helped bring our fiery world to life beyond the book, and add a little extra colour and inspiration to homes beyond the bookshelf.

Each individual entry is illustrated with a contemporary light-touch graphic style, inspired by the CMYK or process printing technique. This layers cyan, magenta, yellow and black inks to create every colour imaginable. This process reflects the vibrancy and depth of the chilli pepper selection – from the mellow apricot jalapeño to the scorchingly hot Dorset Naga.

Taking the CMYK process as a base for the graphic illustrations seemed a fitting analogy for the chillies themselves, which all result from the cross-pollination of a very small base of original variants. The result is a vibrant snapshot of this complex and anarchic world, and an invitation for the reader to be more daring and adventurous when it comes to cooking and eating chillies.

An Anarchy of Chillies is a book that is adored by existing chilli enthusiasts, and one that’s created a cornucopia of future chilli aficionados, too.

This is a book designed and written to turn even the most heat-averse cook, gardener or reader into an avid lover of chillies. Think of this volume as the most vibrant and beautiful version of the Scoville Scale you’re ever likely to see.