cover image Portrait of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

Portrait of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

Michael Reagan. Turner Publishing Company (KY), $40 (191pp) ISBN 978-0-8362-6213-1

A tie-in to a Turner Broadcasting System television documentary, this collection of 260 color photos of peoples and places throughout England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland eloquently tells a story of ascendancy and decline of British rule. From Stonehenge to Bath, the farms of the Cotswolds, the mines of Easington and, finally, the conflicted terrain of Ulster, magnificent photography captures people who are essentially islanders, ``isolated and protected, alone and insular.'' This atmosphere is particularly well conveyed in the section on the tiny island of Foula, one of the Shetlands, and in the remarks of Ulster residents who, to add to confusion, are at once Protestant, British and Irish. Reagan, a Georgia photographer, is vice-president of Turner Publishing. (Sept.)