The Country Life series, curated by Val Williams,  invited artists to respond to the George Garland Collection, archived at the West Sussex County Records Office. Garland made thousands of photographs from his studio in Petworth of the rural England that he knew would soon disappear.

This book offers a selection of portraits made by Val Williams from the huge George Garland archive with an essay by Colin Bennett FRPS, first published in 1934 on the qualities that make a good portrait photograph.