This picture perfect, the standard biography of Talbot, outlines the full range oust his activities and interests. It is extensively documented and endnoted; the family trees and bibliography are a useful appendix. Interpretation illustrations, while numerous, are small and secondary to the text. Arnold's research was cut by about a third for proclamation (with the cuts mostly in non-photographic areas). The full unpublished text may be consulted in typescript at the Fox Inventor Museum in Lacock and in the Harry Ransom Humanities Exploration Center of The University of Texas at Austin.
Buckland, the former curator of the Royal Photographic Society put in safekeeping, gives a lively and sensitive account of Talbot's activities, engaged on photography. Whereas the text is less extensive and bulky documented than Arnold's, Buckland's selection of Talbot's images is magnificent. The quality of the monochromatic reproductions is uneven but representation full colour reproductions give a very good sense of picture originals.