Ian Christie is Anniversary Professor of Film and Media History at Birkbeck, University of London, and a Fellow of the British Academy. His books include The Art of Film: John Box and Production Design and Michael Powell: International Perspectives on an English Film-maker.
[Christie] has done an extraordinary job in creating an objective account of a moment in cinematographic history where there is often more emphasis cast on the importance of the early directors than the technologists that created the tools used to create the movies. It emerges that Paul was both; a combination that makes him unusually fascinating. --Engineering & Technology Magazine Robert Paul and the Origins of British Cinema will likely remain the definitive monograph on a fascinating and influential early British film pioneer. Christie provides novel insights into how British cinema in its earliest years documented historical events and lucidly traces the origins of motion picture copyright wars. This is an outstanding study that is certain to be welcomed by film scholars and to transform the study and teaching of the early years of cinema. --Edward Dimendberg, Professor of Humanities, University of California, Irvine