" This rich volume could well serve as a photographic history of well-heeled British culture during the 20th century, and there"s an interesting story behind almost every shot. Edited by Derrick, British Vogue"s creative director, and Muir, the magazine"s former picture editor, the assemblage includes 350 B&W and color photographs, some previously published and many that never made it into the magazine"s pages. A century"s worth of artists, actors, politicians, models, royalty and singers-not all of them British-are represented, including blue-blooded novelist Nancy Mitford, a playful Sophia Loren and Queen Elizabeth as a young princess in uniform during World War II. Also posing are Maria Callas, Lee Radziwill, Vivian Leigh, a pensive Peter Sellers and a diminutive Picasso welcoming Allied soldiers into postwar Paris. While it includes the work of many talented photographers-Lee Miller, Cecil Beaton and Richard Avedon, for example-what helps set the book apart are the intelligent...