The first collective study of Britain's far-flung coastal art colonies in Newlyn, St Ives, Lamorna, Walberswick, Staithes, Cullercoats, Cockburnspath and Kirkcudbright. It comes at a time of renewed interest in the artists who worked in these late-nineteenth-century colonies. The artists were often linked through mutual friendships made during study at the Parisian ateliers and summers spent in the French art colonies of Grez-sur-Loing or Pont-Aven. Each of the British colonies was sited in a small community dependent on fishing or farming and far enough away from urban centres to retain much of their old customs and way of life. The authors trace the development of the colonies in the twentieth century, when styles and subjects changed, sometimes sparked by the decline of the fishing industry, the influx of middle-class tourists and the encroachment of industrialisation. Many of the paintings produced at the eight colonies were concerned with rendering a 'truthful' depiction of a particular time and place, and can now be seen as a celebration of various unique aspects of a British way of life that was fast disappearing.