One eminent Victorian for whom a biographical study is long overdue is the marine painter Edward William Cooke R.A., F.R.S., F.S.A., F.L.S., F.Z.S., F.G.S., (1811-1880), who, as the letters after his name will indicate, had interests far beyond the coastal views and inshore shipping of Europe which were his main subjects on canvas. He emerges as a gardener and garden designer on a grand scale, a student of geology, a plantsman, botanical illustrator, humorist, antiquarian and collector. Upon his death in 1880, it was said that there was no one to take his place, a verdict that still stands today. Although several exhibitions have been held covering aspects of Cooke s work, this new book gathers together a more representative collection of paintings and drawings, and explores the many-sided character of this fascinating man. He kept a diary, on which this book is largely based, enabling us to see what he was about almost every day of a working life spanning half a century. Today, Cooke's work is widely admired, especially by those with nautical interests such as sailing and fishing. His output was not vast - he exhibited some 250 paintings in London - and although a tentative 700 or so entries appear in the Catalogue of Paintings in Oils (geographically arranged in chronological order), ranging in size from 6 x 4 inches to 6 x 4 feet, not all have yet been found or positively identified.