Twenty British Films

Each film focuses on a particular strength significant in the history of British cinema. This may, for instance, reflect its strong ties with literature, or represent a high spot in British comedy or some other genre in which it has excelled, or it could be a matter of rescuing a 'B' film from obscurity and critical condescension, or of celebrating a star performance.

There will inevitably be something strongly personal about any such choice, and any defence of that choice. These are films that have stayed in the mind, when hundreds of others are forgotten. They speak of a rich national cinema too often undervalued as a poor relation of Hollywood. This book, then, has an element of celebration, but it also examines these twenty films rigorously both in their contexts and as individual texts. The book will be useful to anyone studying these films but above all it is to be accessible to a much wider audience with an interest in and affection for British film.