R. W. S. Herbert Marshall

Born in Leeds in 1841, Herbert Menzies Marshall was an English watercolour painter and illustrator. He was educated at Westminster School and Trinity College, Cambridge, and is also remembered for having played first-class cricket in his younger years.

After university, he studied architecture in Paris before building his career as an artist. His work became especially associated with architectural subjects, city scenes, and historic places, and he contributed illustrations to books that invited readers to travel through places such as London and the cathedral cities of France.

Marshall's books and pictures have lasted because they combine careful observation with a strong sense of atmosphere. For audiobook listeners, he is an appealing figure not only as a writer but as a visual storyteller whose work helps bring the world of late Victorian and Edwardian travel writing into view.