Looking at the art colonies of the latter part of the nineteenth century scattered around the British coast from Cornwall to Scotland, this survey considers each colony and its developed into the twentieth century. Following the introduction, each colony, seven in all, is considered by a different author, with notes following each chapter. The book includes a Selected List of Artists Working in the Colonies, Suggested Further Reading, and an Index.

The book includes about 110 illustrations of the artists' work, almost but not all in colour, in addition there are a number of period monochrome photographs. The period photographs are all quite small, and the reproduced paintings vary in size from very small to full page, with many in between. The pictures run with the text, and are notated in the latter, but the captions to the pictures do not give the dimension of the work, and often not the date.

This is primarily and illustrated text book, and as such I would question the wisdom of setting it in a sans face, rarely does a sans face work well for text as this book proves. A more sensible choice of a serif font would have made for more comfortable reading, dispensed with the need for the wide the line spacing and freed up more space on the page for larger pictures. The quality of reproduction is also in question, the colour is flat with the dark areas of the paintings lacking detail. For a book on the visual arts these are obvious shortcomings. ( )