John Holmstrom, the literary editor of the Royal Shakespeare Company and a governor of the British Film Institute, spent decades travelling the world to research and write the universally acclaimed book The Moving Picture Boy Encyclopaedia. In doing so he assembled a photographic archive that is, of its kind, without equal in Great Britain.
Film historian Paul Sutton showcases hundreds of photographs and posters from the collection, around which he writes a history of this rare part of cinema. Many of the photographs have never before been published.
In addition to the stills and posters, the book includes a delightful 67-page scrapbook of Holmstrom's newspaper and magazine cuttings from around the world; and a selection of letters to Holmstrom from former boy actors in Britain, Italy, France, Germany, America, India and Hungary.