Heath Robinson's Railway Ribaldry

William Heath Robinson's name has become a byword for extraordinary and improbable contraptions.

Born in 1872, his early career was spent illustrating children's books, but it is for his humorous drawings, featuring highly improbable rickety machines held together by string and kept running by a balding, bespectacled attendant in overalls, that he is best known.

The first published collections of Heath Robinson's cartoons appeared during the First World War, with titles such as Frightful War Pictures and Hunlikely!

These were followed by Absurdities and Humorous Inventions in the 1920s and 1930s.

It was at the height of his fame that Heath Robinson was commissioned by the GWR to produce this special volume to mark the railway's centenary in 1935.

In Railway Ribaldry Heath Robinson was not afraid to poke fun at the railway company, especially in its broad gauge days, and the 96 cartoons/illustrations are some of the most famous examples of his work.

Heath Robinson died in September 1944.