Vaughan Williams was one of the most significant English composers of this century and a key architect of the English Musical Renaissance. Much from his prodigious output has entered the standard repertoire, and he is well-known for a number of major works: the Tallis Fantasia, Serenade to Music , the Fifth Symphony, to mention only three. Here is an entirely novel view of Vaughan Williams, his music and his life. Using techniques originated in his Elgar: A Life in Photographs, Jerrold Northrop Moore has drawn photographs from family albums (many hitherto unpublished), from the great photographic artists of the earlier 20th century, and from newspaper and magazine files to build an illustrated portrait of the composer. The visual images are set with captions, many of them quotations from Ursula Vaughan Williams's unique biography, RVW. Each layout has been carefully built up to set a scene, establish an emphasis, and often to cast lines of influence over many years in a composer's life. Jerrold Northrop Moore's work has had the benefit of close consultation with the composer's widow, who has written a preface. The general reader interested in the music of Ralph Vaughan Williams and his contemporaries may fing this book interesting.