The Spirit of England

The 100 color photographs collected here reveal McBride as a thoughtful and painstaking landscape photographer. Many of his painterly shots of fields and hedgerows, ancient buildings, battlements and bridges, river scenes, sheep pastures and desolate moors educe the England of 19th-century romantic watercolorists. Several shots recall Turner and Constable, while the views of beaches and coastlines seen through diffused light are reminiscent of post-impressionists Paul Signac and Georges Seurat. McBride captures unspoiled corners of Cornwall and the Cotswolds, bits of Cumbria's Lake District, misty hillsides in Devon, a 14th-century castle in Sussex. Each photo has only a one-line caption, which will frustrate readers intrigued by these enchanting, carefully conceived pictures. Also disappointing is Graham's foreword, which describes in just over one page his collaboration with McBride on Poldark's Cornwall. (Oct.)