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The Heath Robinson
How To...
Compendium

Picture
The Heath Robinson How To... Compendium
​Titles by W. Heath Robinson and K.R.G. Browne


​Welcome to the wonderful world of W. Heath Robinson, artist and illustrator, and his humorous drawings of everyday life in the 1930s. This collection of the four ‘How To…’ books that he wrote with K.R.G. Browne is a hilarious romp through the challenges of life without servants, in very small flats, driving unreliable cars and trying to grow flowers and vegetables in the unpredictable British climate. As The Gadget King, Heath Robinson proposes his own idiosyncratic solutions to these challenges in the form of gadgets and gizmos held together with knotted string. Not content with providing mechanical answers to tricky problems, Heath Robinson and Browne also have advice on wooing your prospective spouse, learning to drive, keeping fit in a small space and facing middle age. The authors offer us a quirky take on life in England as lived between the wars but it is also fascinating to spot the parallels with life in twenty-first century Britain too – small flats, gender roles, problem-solving gadgets for cars that are now common in many vehicles and gardening difficulties that haven’t changed at all appear in the pages of these four books:
                                             How to be a Perfect Husband
                                                      How to Live in a Flat
                                             How to Make a Garden Grow                                                                                      How to be a Motorist
 
The books are organized as a journey through life rather than according to date of publication – we like to think Heath Robinson would have approved! Along the way you will see Heath Robinson’s fondness for chickens, his ambiguous attitude to cats and older female relatives (and the lady in black bombazine and a bonnet with bugles who asks awkward questions!), and his obvious enthusiasm for fast cars. We hope this collection gives you as much joy to read as it gave us to produce.

Details:
ISBN: 
978-1-906052-44-7​
Format: Paperback
Trim size: 170mm x 244mm

Price: £14.99
Extent: 384pp
Black and white, highly illustrated
Publication date: now published
​
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  • Home
  • About
  • OUR BOOKS
    • The Vintage Picnic Book
    • Flowers as Food
    • The W. Heath Robinson Compendium
  • Blog
  • Contact