William Heath Robinson

A timely new edition featuring the brilliant work from among the most inventive minds in illustration and cartoon wizardry. Heath Robinson was one of Britain's most successful graphic artists. His work has had a huge influence on comic art in this country, but also on the image and self-image of the British. As the champion of pragmatic man, Heath Robinson presented a vision of the British as an unflappable, ingenious and slightly demented breed of inventors that persists to the present day. The British are still a nation of garage-haunting amateur engineers who will recognise the inhabitants of Heath Robinson's world, with their pot bellies and pots of tea, archaic faces and sturdily commonsensical approach to the problems of existence. How to hunt tigers by elephant, how to get an even tan, rise with the sun or put out a chimney fire, these and many more pressing questions are answered in the pages of Contraptions. With illustrations salvaged from the family archives and commentary by Heath Robinson expert, Geoffrey Beare, Contraptions is the best possible introduction to the work of one of Britain's great comic talents.

‘I really have a secret satisfaction in being considered rather mad.’ The name of William Heath Robinson has entered the national vocabulary as a by-word for eccentric inventions and makeshift solutions – and with good reason. His world of cogs, bits of string, magnets and precarious tipping points holds a universal appeal. Here, the quintessential illustrator of British quirks casts his gaze on the nation’s sporting efforts, from our trials on the golf course to our triumphs on the ski slopes, plus a number of completely impossible sports from Heath Robinson’s unique imagination. Everyone who has ever hit a golf ball, swum the length of a swimming pool or braved a football pitch will find something of themselves in this hilarious tribute to the world of sport.

‘I really have a secret satisfaction in being considered rather mad.’ The name of William Heath Robinson has entered the national vocabulary as a by-word for eccentric inventions and makeshift solutions – and with good reason. His world of cogs, bits of string, magnets and precarious tipping points holds a universal appeal. In this classic collection, Heath Robinson leads a life of leisure, taking a look at some of our favourite pastimes. Seaside holidays, dinner parties with the neighbours and dancing classes are all reimagined and given the Heath Robinson touch in a bid to make them just that little bit easier – whether they needed it or not.

‘I really have a secret satisfaction in being considered rather mad.’ The name of William Heath Robinson has entered the national vocabulary as a by-word for eccentric inventions and makeshift solutions – and with good reason. His world of cogs, bits of string, magnets and precarious tipping points holds a universal appeal. The world of travel is lampooned and reinvented in this brilliantly funny collection of Heath Robinson cartoons. The railway system, cars, boats and planes are all given the unique Heath Robinson treatment, from cow-catching devices to homemade safety gliders, providing hilarious and impossible solutions to the travel problems we never even knew existed.

The craziest inventions and funniest machines from the pen of Heath Robinson