Lost England is a large and heavy photo book of late 19th and early 20th century England, collecting hundreds of photographs of cities, towns, and the occasional village. Through brute size, it avoids being just a surface glance: it includes medieval and then-modern buildings, large cities and small towns, tourist-filled beaches and grimy factories.

The photos are grouped into chapters by region, which highlights the visual differences between different parts of the country, largely a consequence of local materials and geography. I was particularly struck by how different London looked compared to anywhere else in England. Fortunately, London doesn't dominate here like it does in many other books about England; it isn't even the most represented city in the book.

Even being over 500 pages doesn't give this book enough space to show many insignificant houses and streets like its London-oriented predecessors could; most of the images are of landmarks or otherwise significant buildings and locations, such as medieval survivals, town halls, bridges, and promenades. Still, the more "boring" streets, shops, and houses are present, and overall Lost England is a well-rounded collection.

Another potential issue is that most of the photos are from the 20th century and a significant number are from after WWI; 19th century photos are much less common. The England shown is largely what it would have been in the late 19th century, but the late dates of the photos do mean that details like adverts and clothing might not be what you're looking for. The upshot is that unlike earlier photographs, many of these include people going about their lives - laying roads, selling newspapers, unloading barges, milling munitions, watching children, enjoying the weather.

As with Lost London and Panoramas of Lost London, the printing quality is superb. The photos vary in size from two-page spreads to quite small, but most are decently large. The captions were occasionally in a different order to the photos, which made locating the described image a little awkward, but this was rarely a real problem since the captions are on the same spread as the photos, so there is never far to look.

If you're looking for visual reference of Victorian and Edwardian England and not just London, this is a fantastic book to have, provided you have the space for it.