This is the first book to tell the story of British photography as a coherent whole, from the pioneers of the early nineteenth century to photographers today who may display their images on websites, as projections, on computer screens or on i-Pods. The authors have travelled the length and breadth of the UK, researching both well-known and forgotten ouevres and uncovering many lost masterpieces. As well as the famous names - William Henry Fox Talbot, Lewis Carroll, Julia Margaret Cameron, Bill Brandt, Madame Yeronde, Angus McBean, Susan Lipper and Tom Hunter among them - they have examined post-cards, family albums, photographic illustrations in books, medical photographs, war-time propoganda and social documents. Previous imbalances in the available history of photography have been corrected, not least by the inclusion of women photographers and photographers from Britain's ethnic minorities. Through their exhaustive research the authors demonstrate the extraordinary range and diversity of roles that photography has played in British cultural life over the past one and half centuries.