Britain at Play - Softcover

"Britain at Play" is a must-have collection of spectacular and hilarious drawings by the celebrated illustrator William Heath Robinson. Though known for his humorous pictures of ingenious and improbable contraptions (featuring steam kettles, candles and lengths of knotted string), Heath Robinson's mechanical devices were only part of his huge and wide-ranging output. Heath Robinson's work for such publications as "The Tatler", "The Sketch" and "The Bystander" features the British at play in the home and outside it, indulging in outlandish sports, going to extraordinary lengths to hunt down an elusive prey, or finding opportunities for romance in surprising circumstances. Presented together for the first time, these stunning illustrations show Britain in the garden, at the beach and on the golf course. We find distinguished gentlemen playing aquatic golf, fish squash or mountain cricket, gathering edelweiss, trapping whelks and catching tigers - or perhaps indulging in some Jazz-tennis. We find automobile disasters ('catastrophes') aplenty, and bizarre acts of kindness by well-meaning boy scouts. We find city commuters sprinting across sand dunes, ladies reading whilst waltzing, lovers stealing a bus-top kiss in the midst of a traffic jam. Charming, eccentric, endlessly inventive, Heath Robinson's unforgettable drawings in this collection perfectly capture the peculiar character of the great British nation at leisure.