Heath Robinson (1872–1944) is Britain’s “Gadget King”—master of the art of creating madcap contraptions that made use of ropes, weights, and pulleys to perform relatively simple tasks, from wart removal to peeling potatoes. Although he trained as a painter and also worked as a book illustrator, Robinson developed his forte with drawings of gadgets that parodied the absurdities of modern life. A true cartoonist, Robinson had a way of getting at the heart of the matter while simultaneously satirizing it mercilessly. He became a household name in Britain, and his popularity continues today with plans to build a museum in London to share with a new generation the story of his life and work.

For the car enthusiast, How to Be a Motorist offers a compendium of Robinson’s wonderfully inventive car-based contraptions, with innovations like a handy “zip-opening bonnet,” a rear wheel to turn the car around with one movement, and a fork attachment to help rural motorists to avoid the occasional chicken on the roadway. The days of unsolicited driving advice could be over with the realization of Robinson’s “duo car for the incompatible,” and the book also includes a parody of a production line demonstrating how cars are made.

A side-splittingly funny collection from the man whose “absurd, beautiful drawings” H. G. Wells claimed “give me a peculiar pleasure of the mind like nothing else in the world,” this book make a perfect gift for anyone looking to have a laugh at our complicated and increasingly mechanical modern life.

Heath Robinson (1872–1944) is Britain’s “Gadget King”—master of the art of creating madcap contraptions that made use of ropes, weights, and pulleys to perform relatively simple tasks. Although he trained as a painter and also worked as a book illustrator, Robinson developed his forte with drawings of gadgets that parodied the absurdities of modern life. A true cartoonist, Robinson had a way of getting at the heart of the matter while simultaneously satirizing it mercilessly. He became a household name in Britain, and his popularity continues today.

The cartoons in Heath Robinson: How to be a Perfect Husband provide sage advice for how to succeed in almost all aspects of married life—and, of course, it often features a complicated Robinsonian gadget. The perfect husband, for example, will take advantage of two simple attachments to the garden roller to tend the lawn and entertain the baby simultaneously. Likewise, he can peel onions with no fear of tears using a mirror and construct a cost-effective vacuum cleaner using items found around the house. Most importantly, he will devise a device to help him climb the stairs silently after a late night out with the boys.

A gently satirical collection, this book make a perfect gift for anyone looking to have a laugh at our complicated and increasingly mechanical modern life.
 

Heath Robinson (1872–1944) is Britain’s “Gadget King”—master of the art of creating madcap contraptions that made use of ropes, weights, and pulleys to perform relatively simple tasks, from wart removal to peeling potatoes. Although he trained as a painter and also worked as a book illustrator, Robinson developed his forte with drawings of gadgets that parodied the absurdities of modern life. A true cartoonist, Robinson had a way of getting at the heart of the matter while simultaneously satirizing it mercilessly. He became a household name in Britain, and his popularity continues today with plans to build a museum in London to share with a new generation the story of his life and work.

How to Live in a Flat brings together a series of patently Robinsonesque space-saving solutions for city dwellers looking to make the most of modest square footage. Some of the solutions involve furniture made to serve multiple—and often opposing—purposes, like a combination bath-and-writing desk for businessmen. Others reimagine the workings of entire apartment complexes, including one cutaway explaining the use of the communal bath.

A side-splittingly funny collection from the man whose “absurd, beautiful drawings” H. G. Wells claimed “give me a peculiar pleasure of the mind like nothing else in the world,” this book make a perfect gift for anyone looking to have a laugh at our complicated and increasingly mechanical modern life.

Heath Robinson (1872–1944) is Britain’s “Gadget King”—master of the art of creating madcap contraptions that made use of ropes, weights, and pulleys to perform relatively simple tasks, from wart removal to peeling potatoes. Although he trained as a painter and also worked as a book illustrator, Robinson developed his forte with drawings of gadgets that parodied the absurdities of modern life. A true cartoonist, Robinson had a way of getting at the heart of the matter while simultaneously satirizing it mercilessly. He became a household name in Britain, and his popularity continues today with plans to build a museum in London to share with a new generation the story of his life and work.

Heath Robinson’s Golf establishes Robinson as one of the great humorists of the “gentleman’s game.” From the origin of those peculiar shortened pants called “plus-fours” to the multiple meanings of an “awkward lie,” Robinson pokes fun at this popular sport. Among the cartoons in Golf are mechanisms like a machine for testing golf drivers or the “waterproof mashie” for keeping one’s clothes dry. And, while Robinson primarily focuses on the antics of a portly golfer and his long-suffering caddie, few will avoid the feeling that Robinson is at times speaking directly to them with contraptions like a putter fitted with a patented ball guide or a “movable bunker” to block an opponent’s progress down the fairway.

A side-splittingly funny collection from the man whose “absurd, beautiful drawings” H. G. Wells claimed “give me a peculiar pleasure of the mind like nothing else in the world,” this book make a perfect gift for anyone looking to have a laugh at our complicated and increasingly mechanical modern life.

Heath Robinson (1872–1944) is Britain’s “Gadget King”—master of the art of creating madcap contraptions that made use of ropes, weights, and pulleys to perform relatively simple tasks, from wart removal to peeling potatoes. Although he trained as a painter and also worked as a book illustrator, Robinson developed his forte with drawings of gadgets that parodied the absurdities of modern life. A true cartoonist, Robinson had a way of getting at the heart of the matter while simultaneously satirizing it mercilessly. He became a household name in Britain, and his popularity continues today with plans to build a museum in London to share with a new generation the story of his life and work.

With Heath Robinson’s Great War, the cartoonist lampoons the German army and the hardships of war. What better antidote to the threat of popular German propaganda than drawings of the “Huns” disabling the British army not with mustard gas but laughing gas? In high demand among British civilians, Robinson’s WWI panels also provided respite to thousands of troops—many of whom sent the cartoonist letters suggesting future subjects or simply expressing their appreciation. 

A side-splittingly funny collection from the man whose “absurd, beautiful drawings” H. G. Wells claimed “give me a peculiar pleasure of the mind like nothing else in the world,” this book make a perfect gift for anyone looking to have a laugh at our complicated and increasingly mechanical modern life.

Heath Robinson’s Home Front sees the well-loved cartoonist working in collaboration with the writer and humorist Cecil Hunt. Together, they offer hopelessly impractical solutions to some of the most perplexing problems of the day. Pity the poor Briton advised to play his weekly bridge tournament while wearing a gas mask, the gardener who substitutes a complex configuration of magnets in the shortage of simple pea-sticks, or the motorist who must find a way to power her vehicle without gasoline. The result is an amusingly idiosyncratic celebration of the British population’s remarkable ability to “make do and mend.”

Heath Robinson was a household name in Britain, and millions of readers around the world continue to thoroughly enjoy his cartoons today. A classic military-themed compendium, Heath Robinson’s Home Front will be a favorite with fans of the cartoonist’s complicated, fanciful contraptions.

With Heath Robinson’s Second World War, Britain’s “Gadget King” uses his characteristic madcap contraptions to poke good-natured fun at the war. From a series of cork bath mats strung together to enable soldiers to cross a treacherous stream to a tank complete with piano attachment for campsite concertos, the cartoons found here are uproariously funny while also forming a cheerful critique of some of the absurdities of war.

Heath Robinson was a household name in Britain, and millions of readers around the world continue to thoroughly enjoy his cartoons today. This classic military-themed compendium will be a favorite with fans of the cartoonist’s complicated, fanciful contraptions.

In the course of the past century we have lost much of our rich heritage of orchard fruits. But with taste once again triumphing over shelf-life and sparking a renewed interest in local varieties, people around the world are rediscovering the delights of that most delicious and adaptable fruit: the apple.
This book features apple varieties from the Herefordshire Pomona that are still cultivated today. The Pomona—an exquisitely illustrated book of apples and pears—was published at the height of the Victorian era by a small rural naturalists’ club. Its beautiful illustrations and authoritative text are treasured by book collectors and apple experts alike. From the Blenheim Orange and Worcester Pearmain to the less fêted yet scrumptious Ribston Pippin, Margil, and Pitmaston Pine Apple, Heritage Apples is illustrated with the Pomona’s stunning paintings and tells the intriguing stories behind each variety, how they acquired their names, and their merits for eating, cooking, or making cider. Also featuring practical advice on how to choose and grow your own trees, this is the perfect book for apple-lovers and growers alike.
 

Designer Bookbinders is one of the foremost bookbinding societies and its International Bookbinding Competition in association with Mark Getty and the Bodleian Library continues to attract top binders from around the world. For 2017, the theme of the competition was myths, heroes, and legends. Throughout the ages, every culture has created myths and legends that recount the great deeds of its heroes. This year’s entries reflect a remarkable range of styles, materials, and approaches to great classics of world literature, as well as modern texts.

Heroic Works collects the full 184 entries from the 2017 competition, highlighting the twenty-eight winning bindings and offering a veritable showcase for the creativity and craftsmanship of the international bookbinding community. As beautifully designed as many of the bindings it displays, this showcase of the best in modern bookbinding will become a collector’s item among aficionados of bookbinding—as well as a handsome addition to any personal library.
 

Written in the 1930s for would-be lovers from the British middle-class, How to be a Good Lover is a delightfully antiquated guide that takes readers of both sexes through all the stages of a relationship, from the initial meeting to courtship, engagement, and marriage. In addition to weighing in on the proper age gap, dating outside one’s class, and the etiquette of gifting, the book brims with age-old nuggets of advice that range from practicalities such as “don’t attempt kissing in a canoe unless you are both able to swim”and “don’t kiss your lover with your hat still on your head” to more substantial advice such as the admonishment to show respect to your potential partner’s parents.     

 

Charmingly illustrated with line drawings from the period, How to be a Good Lover is by turns humorously old-fashioned and timeless, and it offers sage advice for all hoping to one day find love.

“Do not march into the drawing-room and, having inspected it, say, “What a nice room, but —” “Do not look at your son steadfastly and then turn to his wife and tell her he is getting thin.” “When you wax eloquently on the way to keep soup hot, you are merely asking him to shout on the house tops that he prefers cold soup to mothers-in-law.” These are just a few of the words of wisdom on offer in How to be a Good Mother-in-Law, the latest in a series of delightful advice books that also includes How to be a Good Husband and How to be a Good Wife. While the station of mother-in-law is not one celebrated for its sympathy and is the subject of no shortage of off-color jokes, this slim guide shows that it is possible to achieve accord—even friendship—with the man or woman your son or daughter has chosen to marry.

           
Originally published in the 1930s, How to be a Good Mother-in-Law offers advice that ranges from the amusingly old-fashioned to the surprisingly still relevant today. Among the topics discussed are how not to behave on your son or daughter’s wedding day, how to visit the couple in their new home, how to interact with the grandchildren, and what degree of independence should be granted to married sons. For mothers-in-law considering living with the married couple, a chapter presents suggestions for how to negotiate this famously fraught situation. In another chapter called “Are They as Bad as They are Painted?,” the book reproduces a selection of tabloid tragedies, including the story of a mother-in-law that surprised a hapless couple by accompanying them on their honeymoon.

Whether you’re a new mother-in-law, a veteran to this much-maligned role, or a long-suffering spouse whose partner’s parent seems impossible to please—the pithy advice on-hand in How to be a Good Mother-in-Law will be warmly welcomed.

The 1920s were the age of the automobile, with the availability for the first time of relatively affordable cars and the rise of Ford Motor Company in America and Morris Motors in the UK. However, the laws governing driving were for the most part yet to be written and the rules of the road were rudimentary to say the least. With a growing number of motorists in need of guidelines, How to be a Good Motorist provided all the information one needed to enjoy—safely—the open road, offering advice on how to handle such hazards as skidding, headlight glare, and livestock on the road.

Among the practical and unusual guidelines offered are what precautions one should take when another car approaches and which parts of a car’s engine can be fixed in a pinch with emery paper, copper wire, and insulating tape. Some of the observations, like the cautionary note that, when driving, one ought to “look on all other drivers as fools” are sure to strike a chord with many motorists today. Others, like the suggestion that “a good chauffeur will save his employer a great deal of expense” evoke the style of a glamorous bygone era. The book covers such topics as unscrupulous secondhand car dealers, simple maintenance, women drivers, and “dashboard delights.” (Spoiler: For a well-equipped dashboard, don’t forget the speedometer.) For those planning a longer journey, the book also advises on how to choose the most pleasant picnic site when on the road.

How to be a Good Motorist is the perfect gift for the new driver or anyone who longs for a simpler time before rush-hour traffic reports and roundabouts.

To keep children clean is something that should never be attempted. It cannot be done.
 
The mere provision of the vegetable is not sufficient; it must be actually eaten.
 
If there is room enough for somersaults, the child can be satisfied.
 
These are just a few of the words of wisdom on offer in How to be a Good Parent, the latest in a series of delightful advice books from the Bodleian Library that also includes How to be a Good Husband and How to be a Good Wife. As developmental psychology began to show promise, beleaguered parents were drawn to the nascent discipline with the sorts of questions that will be familiar to any parent: How does one tell a toddler “no” without triggering a tantrum? Are there circumstances in which it’s acceptable to extract good behavior with bribery?
           
How to be a Good Parent brings together bits from the best of advice books of the 1920s and ’30s, taking readers through all the challenges involved in raising a child. Among the topics discussed are good—and bad—behavior, how to dress one’s dear son or darling daughter, mealtime, and the dreaded morning and bedtime routines. A section on taking medicine offers sage advice: “Gargling is a useful accomplishment” (while perhaps not appropriate for the dinner table). In a section on playtime, parents tasked with planning their child’s birthday will warmly welcome the book’s advice to “let the children give their own parties!”

By turns humorously old-fashioned and timeless, How to be a Good Parent is a charmingly illustrated guide to what any parent can tell you is the world's most difficult job.

The 1920s marked the high point of refined dining, when silver tray–bearing white-gloved waiters circulated among guests and starched linens and candlelit tables were de rigueur. For the decadent class that came to prominence during the post-war period, achieving a reputation for throwing the most recherché dinner parties meant instant social success, and many an enterprising host or hostess sought advice in J. Rey’s The Whole Art of Dining.

By turns a collection of practical advice and a catalog of eccentricities, The Whole Art of Dining, republished by the Bodleian Library as How to Dine in Style, contained everything the would-be socialite needed to know in order to elevate food to high art, from tricks for putting together a proper French menu or throwing a garden party to practical tips on serving wines in the correct order and at the right temperature. Throughout the book are stories of astonishing excess, such as the search for ever-more-elaborate themes and venues, and the more daring of the book’s devotees might have been tempted to emulate efforts like those of the intrepid hostess whose mountaineering-themed dinner party had guests rappel to the rooftop of her Chicago home or American millionaire George A. Kessler, whose infamous “Gondola Party” flooded— for the first and only time—the central courtyard of the Savoy.

A captivating glimpse into the golden age of fine dining, this book will be consumed with interest by discerning diners and fans of the Roaring Twenties—and it may even inspire readers to try their hand at throwing a stylish soiree of their own.

Structured around the fictional Brash family—Peggy and Buckley Brash and their two children—the book, originally published in 1964, includes chapters on such topics as “How to Dress in England,” “The Dream House and How to Rebuild It,” and “How to Live with the Upper Classes Without Having Any Money.” Through the Brash family’s encounters with the British and their amusingly bewildered conversations as they attempt to interpret this alien way of life, Mead answers with obvious affection and quirky humor such questions as “Is England really a pest hole?” and “Do English schools create sex madness?”

 

Written with Mead’s characteristic incisive wit and illustrated with the original dynamic cartoons, How to Live Like a Lord Without Really Trying is packed with pithy advice that is equally revealing of Britain in the 1960s as its bemused American visitors.

Before eHarmony.com, speed dating, and The Rules, there was W.H. Collingridge and his no-nonsense guide, How to Woo, When, and to Whom. Originally published in 1855 and newly reprinted here, How to Woo wrestles with the same problems men and women face today: seeking, seducing, and snaring a suitable mate. 

The book addresses every step in navigating the perilous territory of love, from instructions on writing love letters to the rules of public displays of affection to gracefully dealing with rejection. Also included are the most important characteristics to keep in mind when choosing The One, such as age, health, fortune, morals, and social position. On marriage, Collingridge wisely advises: “Both men and women vary greatly as to the age at which they arrive at maturity; marriage should never be undertaken before that age, and generally never after.” Even so, Collingridge lauds marriage as an institution of virtues, noting how young men’s “intellects become sharpened, their morals improved, and their energy, by certain necessity, enlarged.” (He does not, interestingly enough, note what marriage does for women.) Passages of verse by such famed literary figures as Shakespeare, Boswell, Dr. Johnson, and Lady Mary Wortley Montagu accompany the sensible advice, providing an array of poetic passages that capture the tumultuous and timeless emotions of love and rejection. 

Even though today’s social scene is more analogous to Sex and the City than Emma, much of the counsel in How to Woo is surprisingly applicable to contemporary daters. An invaluable resource for both lovers and the lovelorn, How to Woo is a delightful handbook on the age-old art of courting.

Pizza, pasta, and olive oil: today, it’s hard to imagine any supermarket without these items. But how did these foods—and many more Italian ingredients—become so widespread?

In this book, Diego Zancani maps the extraordinary progress of Italian food, from the legacy of the Roman invasion to its current, ever-increasing popularity. Starting with medieval manuscripts, he traces Italian recipes in Britain back to the thirteenth century, and draws on later travel diaries to explore British and American encounters with Italian food abroad. The book also shows how Italian immigrants, from ice-cream sellers and grocers to chefs and restauranteurs, had a transformative influence on the spread of the cuisine, championing Italian food at pivotal moments throughout history.

Lavishly illustrated with material from the archives of the Bodleian Library and elsewhere, this sumptuous book also includes Italian regional recipes that have come down to us through the centuries, and celebrates the enduring international appeal of delicatessens, pizzerias, trattorias, and the Mediterranean diet.
 

The (very) hungry goat has a big appetite that gets him into all kinds of adventures. He’ll eat anything, from pig swill to flies, bugs, and bees; from frying pans to barbed wire and the bark of trees. The insatiable goat grows fatter and fatter, until one day he gobbles up something that sends him on the biggest adventure of all.

Whimsical illustrations and beautifully paced rhymes bring this greedy animal to life. Originally published in 1964, The Hungry Goat brings a comic cautionary tale to a new generation of children.
 

Fountain Pens—The Super-Pen for Our Super-Men
Ladies! Learn to Drive! Your Country Needs Women Drivers!
Do you drink German water?
 
When Britain declared war on Germany in 1914, industrious companies wasted no time in seizing the commercial opportunities presented by the conflict. Without TV or radio, newspapers provided one of the few ways in which the British public could get reliable news of the war. To cater to their rising readerships, advertising emerged as the new science of sales, growing increasingly sophisticated throughout the war years in both visual presentation and psychological appeal.
           
The Huns Have Got my Gramophone! collects some of the most compelling and cleverly worded original advertisements created between 1914 and 1918. Many of the advertisements are aimed at women, from fearless guard dogs promising protection while husbands are away to soaps and skin creams for “beauty on duty.” Others use the power of patriotism to push new products for men, including “officers’ waterproof trench coats,” and one young officer writing in the Times attests to the coats’ superior weather resistance by boldly asserting that he’d leave his sword behind before he left his Burberry. Together, the advertisements collected in the book reveal how advertisers sought to create new markets for products that took into account social change throughout the course of the conflict.
           
Featuring a range of products, from clothing, cigarettes, and invalid carriages to motorcycles and portable Decca phonographs—the “ideal gramophone for active service”—the book offers a new and unexpected source of historical information and an intimate glimpse of a nation at war.