Serious scholarly writing and research on British cinema has burgeoned to a dizzying degree in recent decades, and this new four-volume collection from Routledge meets the need for an authoritative reference work to enable users to navigate and make sense of the subject’s large body of scholarship, and the continuing explosion in research output. Edited by Robert Murphy, the leading expert in the field, this new title is a ‘mini library’ of the foundational and the very best cutting-edge scholarship on British cinema.

British Cinema provides an indispensable one-stop resource on the major periods, genres, studios, filmmakers, and debates in British cinema from the nineteenth century to the present day. The collection addresses a wide range of issues and topics including: British cinema as a ‘national’ cinema; its often difficult relationship with Hollywood; censorship; gender representation; distinctively British genres (not least, horror, comedy, and costume film); and the output of studios and directors (including immortals such as Alfred Hitchcock, David Lean, Alexander Mackendrick, and Michael Powell).

British Cinema includes a full index and a comprehensive introduction, newly written by the editor, which places the collected material in its historical and intellectual context. It is an essential work of reference and is destined to be valued by scholars and advanced students of film studies as a vital research tool.