He looks for the overtly picturesque, especially in his lighting, and this will give his best pictures wide, if perhaps not deep or long-lasting appeal. Sykes's text lets him down badly. It may seem ungenerous to remark on a photographer's lack of historical knowledge, but Sykes claims authorship of text as well as illustration, and the sheer rapidity with which astounding mistakes leap off the page at a reader with no more than a decent general knowledge means that this book really deserves an intellectual health warning. Sharp has worked in archaeology almost all his career, and has unparallelled experience, as well as a natural sensitivity towards these sites. He works at committing his response to film, rather than merely at creating an attractive image.
Several pictures made at dusk are gloomy but moving.
His text is knowledgeable, perceptive and well put together. Some readers will be disappointed that many of the pictures are neither obviously archaeological, nor especially pretty. But the best pictures here have a quality of expression that takes them far beyond any coffee-table evocation of 'beautiful Britain'. This book is a major achievement.