"William Powell Frith, painter of Derby Day and The Railway Station, was one of the most popular and successful of Victorian artists. His career spanned the entire Victorian age, he was close friends with Dickens, and his work was praised by Turner. in the first biography of Frith for many years, published to coincide with major exhibitions celebrating his centenary, Christopher Wood, a renowned Victorian dealer and art historian, paints a vivid and compelling picture of this reluctant artist and his times."