Education
Taylor was educated at the Universities of Street Andrews and Manchester.
Taylor was educated at the Universities of Street Andrews and Manchester.
A school trip in the 1970s to Captain James Cook’s Birthplace Museum started a lifelong interest in maritime art and history for James Taylor. Early in his career, Taylor spent time as an auctioneer with Phillips Fine Art Auctioneers, where he was Head of Victorian paintings. From 1989, he was a curator of paintings, drawings and prints, exhibition organiser and Corporate Membership Manager at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich.
He began to publish on marine art in the mid 1990s.
Taylor has since written several books, including illustrated histories on maritime and yachting art, and, in 2008, The Voyage of the Beagle, charting the story of the ship made famous by Charles Darwin. In March 2009, John Van Wyhe, of British Broadcasting Corporation History Magazine, wrote that The Voyage of the Beagle ‘brings together a wonderful mixture of old and new illustrations and information about the voyage from wildly scattered sources.’ He has also produced a study on the popular English 20th century cartoonist and Punch magazine editor, Fougasse, who created the anti-rumour and gossip posters during World World War World War II His publication "Your Country Needs You - The Secret History of the Propaganda Poster" (Saraband, August 2013) was timed to coincide with the start of the World War I commemorations in 2014.
Since 1999, he has worked as a freelance writer and lecturer. In 2001, he was appointed an official lecturer for the National Association of Decorative and Fine Arts Societies (NADFAS).
According to the Mere Literary Festival, Taylor ‘lectures regularly to a wide range of societies, including NADFAS around the world.’
In June 2015 Taylor was awarded a Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Sussex for his thesis on William Westall (1781-1850) the "landscape and figure draughtsman" who sailed with Matthew Flinders on the voyage of HMS Investigator (1801-1803) – the first recorded circumnavigation of Australia.
James Taylor is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.
