Gerry Turvey has been involved in film education since the 1960s, including a Principal Lectureship in Film Studies at Kingston University, and a long association with the Phoenix Cinema Trust in North London. He continues to research early film.
Turvey's latest book is an expertly piloted powerhouse-on-wheels that fairly rattles through story after story from cinema's formative years. Along the way it rampages through such territories as class-specific cultural tradition, film industry business practice, media evolution, film technology, creative roles, genre, publicity and film form. It applies and tests scholarly models, overturns received wisdom, positively fountains evidence (both previously unknown and previously under-used) and identifies patterns galore; its passage leaves the ground of early cinema history yet more fertile. -- Dr Andrew Shail, Senior Lecturer in Film, Newcastle University