Humphrey Jennings, born in 1907, was a writer, set designer, painter, editor and, perhaps most famously, a director of ground-breaking documentary films for the renowned GPO film unit: Listen to Britain, Fires Were Started and A Diary for Timothy -- films which changed the face of public service broadcasting.

Throughout his life, Jennings also worked on his great anthology on the Industrial Revolution and the human imagination, Pandaemonium. Jennings died while making a film in Greece in 1950; Pandaemonium, a monumental achievement, was finally published in 1985. Kevin Jackson's biography of this gifted and influential man is an indispensable guide to Jenning's life and work, and the turbulent times through which he lived.