Rating: 4 out of 5

Having seen some of his Queen Elizabeth portraits at the National Portrait Gallery the other day I decided to find out more. I missed the exhibition at the V&A earlier this year, but was delighted to find out that there was a book of the exhibition and so ordered it. The book has a good balance between history - how did Cecil Beaton come into photographing the royal family, technical details - camera details and lighting information as well as influences - Gainsborough, Winterhalter etc. Some of the photos included in the Plates section are magnificent, and the stories behind them, included in the text give them all more depth. A beautiful set of photographs to study and be inspired by.

Originally posted to my Goodreads account