Simon Brown is Associate Professor in Film and Television at Kingston University. His main areas of research are early cinema, British cinema, colour cinematography and contemporary American television. In 2004, in addition to teaching at Kingston, he was Senior Research Fellow for The London Project, a year-long AHRB funded project researching the history of the British Film Industry in London from its inception to 1914.

• IntroductionList of Illustrations and Tables                                                                             Film Production and the Hepworth Manufacturing Company Ltd (HMC)Hepworth, Film Sales and the Rise of the Renter   The HMC, the Rental Sector and Market Strategies           HMC and Patterns of Exhibition                                                       Conclusion: The Producers’ Response to the Crisis                                    Appendix One: Filmography of Hepworth and Co and the HMC 1899–1911   Appendix Two: HMC Titles Listed in ‘Around the Shows’ Released 1 October 1908–31 August 1909      Appendix Three: List of London Based Rental Firms (1905–1911) and Foreign Film Sales Representatives (1907–1911)BibliographyIndex

‘Rich with historical context, Brown’s book builds on the foundations laid down by the likes of John Barnes and Rachel Low, and more recent elucidations by scholars such as Luke McKernan (whose recent book, also published in the consistently excellent Exeter Studies in Film History series, did for Charles Urban and co. what Browns does here for Hepworth).‘From the very first page it offers a vital addendum to our knowledge of the early years of British cinema.‘Brown not only enhances our understanding of this particular film-maker, but of British film history more generally.’Stephen Morgan,Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television March 2017‘… painstaking scholarship… a book that significantly revises our understanding of one national production context’Joe Kember, viewfinder, No 104 September 2016 ‘Lucid and well-informed, the argument posed is a stimulating one. I, for one, look forward to reading it.’ (Professor Stephen Neale, University of Exeter)   ‘Well-written and original, it opens up the subject in a thoroughly new way.  This will be an important book.’ (Professor Richard Maltby, Flinders University)