The Apu Trilogy, By Andrew Robinson

Between 1955 and 1959, the Bengali writer and musician Satyajit Ray - then a cinema novice - directed three films about one boy's growth and maturity: Pather Panchali, Aparajito and The World of Apu.

They endure as lyric masterpieces envied, or emulated, by film-makers since. Martin Scorsese wrote that "Ray's ability to turn the particular into the universal was a revelation to me".

In this study, Ray's biographer draws on a deep immersion in the master's works. He explains not only the genesis of the trilogy on film, and Ray's battles to give his vision form, but its roots in Indian culture.

Robinson keeps faith with Ray's own polymathic talents to show how history, art, literature and music all dance behind the haunting shadows on screen.