William Powell Frith was one of the most popular and most successful figures of the Victorian art world yet, until now, there has been no biography about him. In "William Powell Frith: A Painter and His World" art historian Christopher Wood tells the remarkable, lively and colourful life of this reluctant artist. Born in the same year as Queen Victoria, Frith originally wanted to be an auctioneer but was forced by his parents - who were convinced of his genius - to take up art as a career. His work spanned the entire Victorian age and he became famous for large-scale paintings such as "Derby Day" - which, when exhibited, had to be protected from jostling crowds by policemen - and The Railway Station. A favourite of the Royal Family, and friendly with Turner, Landseer and Dickens, Frith was at the centre of the Victorian artistic world. His memoirs reveal him as a humorous and acute observer, while his domestic life was also typically Victorian: he had a wife, a mistress, and nineteen children. As Christopher Wood shows the story of Frith's life is more than an artist's biography; it is a picture of the entire Victorian period, starring one of its greatest characters.