This book provides the first comprehensive catalogue of the series, with details of the various editions and short biographies of the authors. The catalogue is preceded by a shot essay which describes how Hilda Matheson's vision was realised after her early death by the poet and journalist W.J. Turner, assisted by Sheila Shannon, the publisher William Collins, and a group of talented emigres from Austria who worked for the producer, Adprint, having fled their lives from Hitler. Much of the history is based on research into wartime papers only recently opened for public examination, and personal interviews with people still living who worked on BIP, including Sheila Shannon and some of the thirteen surviving authors. Much new light is thrown on the authoritative, beautiful and popular BIP books which helped Britain win the war, and on the fascinating people who helped produce them. l