"Trotsky: A Documentary" presents a dramatic biography of Trotsky by means of pictures and words in much the same way as a film uses a combination of image and sound. David King, who designed the book, has amassed a unique collection of over 250 photographs, documents and illustrations, many in colour, which cover every phase of Trotsky's extraordinary life.
Beginning in an atmosphere of clandestine revolutionary conspiracy, imprisonment and exile, the story follows Trotsky through unprecedented military achievement to a position of supreme military power; then, after more years of hunted exile, ends in brutal assassination. Francis Wyndham's commentary, making as much use as possible of Trotsky's own written accounts, clarifies for the general reader the complex ideology which sustained him throughout his spectacular career.