When Walker turns fashion stories into fairy tales, the results are unmistakable and inimitable. Though they may soar in scale and ambition, they are painstakingly realized – and with no concession to artificial enhancement. In this new collection everything you see was specially constructed; the make-believe really happened.

In Walker’s pursuit of the perfect picture no demand appears too unreasonable, no scenario too outlandish, no objective unattainable. So, if ever you have yearned to crashland a Spitfire in your drawing room, to paint a village yellow, to cut a car in two, to meet a real witch, to swing from several chandeliers, to ride with a pack of foxhounds led by a flying saucer, to pilot a biplane made of French loaves, Tim Walker shows you it is entirely possible. You just have to believe.

Some of the biggest names in fashion and contemporary culture are here: Alber Elbaz sporting a pair of rabbit ears; Agyness Deyn in the sand dunes of Namibia; Alexander McQueen and a memento mori of skull and cigarettes; Helena Bonham Carter poised with Ray-Bans and a Diet Coke; Stella Tennant in a pink cloud among the rhododendrons of an English country garden…

Singer and musician Kate Bush contributes a foreword and Walker himself an afterword, as well as illuminating his pictures throughout with personal observations.