Vintage Words of Wisdom

Achieve an authentic vintage look by taking lessons with Lillie London, the 1930s embroidery expert. Practice your new skills with 88 projects. Create beautiful tablecloths, tea cosies, guest towels and cushions. Make lovely embroidered pyjamas and underwear in pre-war styles. Craft accessories like bags and belts for yourself, as well as toys for children, gifts for new parents and home-made presents for family members. This book is ideal for the beginner who wants to broaden their embroidery horizons. Lillie London's Needlework Book offers you: •88 vintage projects from the 1930s, illustrated with photographs, line drawings and diagrams; •12 lessons in basic embroidery techniques, wool work and simple toy making. Lillie London gives lessons in a range of skills from cut-work to Italian quilting, needleweaving, petit point and rug-making. The final two lessons give guidance on the basics of embroidery and the most popular stitches used at the time. •Words of wisdom from the past that chime with modern trends and fashions - Lillie London speaks to you across the decades with helpful advice, clear instructions and clever ideas. Lillie London's Needlework Book provides inspiration for your vintage homestyling, useful guidance to help you upcycle vintage items and new skills that can be employed to give your twenty-first century embroidery a 1930s twist.

The origins of 'How to Make a Garden Grow' lie in an article in 'The Strand' Magazine called 'A Highly Complicated Science'. The science referred to was that of gardening and the article by K. R. G. Browne was accompanied by nine of Heath Robinson's drawings, all of which were subsequently used in their book for the How To... series. Much of the subject matter for this book was drawn from Heath Robinson's earlier cartoons. For example, among his earliest work for 'The Sketch' was a series of drawings on the practicalities of gardening. This included a picture of 'root pruning' showing the gardener tunnelling down to the roots of a plant to prune them. Although the earlier drawing is much more elaborate, the idea is the same as that presented in 'How to Make a Garden Grow.' Gardening was a very popular hobby in the 1930s. It was a good way to save on food bills, start-up costs were low and the work was healthy - all concerns for the British during the depression years. Heath Robinson's satirical cartoons and K. R. G. Browne's humorous text gently poke fun at contemporary gardeners and their foibles and furbelows. We see design schemes for gardens to suit all types of gardeners, concerned gardeners diligently tending a sick plant and ideas for games that can be played at garden parties. Above all though are the wonderful Heath Robinson gadgets, doohickeys and gizmos designed to help the earnest gardener deal with the many challenges of gardening. How do you avoid spraying the neighbours when trying to get rid of greenfly? What is the best way to trap earwigs or to keep cats off your vegetable patch? Heath Robinson has the answer. Heath Robinson and Browne don't claim to be gardening experts but in 'How to Make a Garden Grow', as in all the How to... books, they have expertly captured both the spirit of their time and the essence of what it was (and in many ways still is) to be British. Look no further for advice on gardening - this book has it all neatly summed up in the most entertaining way. If you are also a married flat-dweller who has a car and plays golf (as many of us are) then you will find much to amuse and inform you in our other titles by Heath Robinson and K. R. G. Browne: •How to be a Perfect Husband •How to Live in a Flat •How to be a Motorist •Humours of Golf. All our Heath Robinson titles include a Foreword by Geoffrey Beare, Trustee of the William Heath Robinson Trust, which is working to build a Heath Robinson museum in North London.

First published in 1923, 'Humours of Golf' by William Heath Robinson was created from the golfing illustrations he drew for 'The Bystander' magazine. In addition to these cartoons, Heath Robinson made a number of small line drawings on golfing subjects that were added at intervals through the book. There are several allusions to contemporary events, fashions and inventions in his illustrations that provide added interest today but, for many, it is Heath Robinson's quirky characterisation of 'a good walk spoiled' that will give the most pleasure. Heath Robinson didn't play golf himself but he was obviously a shrewd observer of the game and its players. Heath Robinson gently pokes fun at many aspects of golf and golfers in this book. We are all familiar with jibes about the clothes golfers wear, the challenges of maintaining a golf course when nature is determined to undermine (sometimes literally!) the greenkeeper's efforts, and the frustrations of a difficult lie, and there are illustrations on all these topics. However, as was his wont, Heath Robinson also provides lots of ideas for practical solutions and gadgets to help golfers overcome the many challenges they face on the course. Among many others, he proposes:•the telescopic putter to save the legs;•the golfer's safety hat;•a patent putter with adjustment for levelling out worm casts;•and plus fives and minus fours. Heath Robinson's 'Humours of Golf' gives so much to so many - entertainment, history and practical advice for enthusiastic golfers. As we have now made it available as an ebook you can read it on your ereader or smart phone while you are waiting to tee off. To golfers who are also married flat-dwellers with a garden and a car we offer our other ebook titles by Heath Robinson: •How to Live in a Flat •How to be a Perfect Husband •How to Make a Garden Grow •How to be a Motorist. All our Heath Robinson titles include a Foreword by Geoffrey Beare, Trustee of the William Heath Robinson Trust, who is working to build a Heath Robinson museum in North London.

First published in 1937, 'How to be a Perfect Husband' is the second book in the 'How to... ' series. From finding a wife to growing old together, Heath Robinson and K.R.G. Browne explore many aspects of married life with witty and insightful text and illustrations. Heath Robinson received much teasing from his family about this choice of subject. However, looking back over his cartoons one finds that romance and courtship had been among his most frequently chosen subjects, from early 'Cupid' cartoons to such pictures as 'The Coquette' and 'Stolen Kisses' which were reproduced in 'Absurdities' in 1934.'How to be a Perfect Husband' reflects the great changes that took place in the marital relationship between the wars. The authors' gentle humour pokes fun at the challenges faced by men due to the depression, a lack of servants and the newly confident 'modern' woman. Of course, housework without servants also made life very difficult for women, until the invention of the washing machine and vacuum cleaner in the 1930s meant that things became a little easier. This too is reflected in the illustrations as Heath Robinson demonstrates his considerable talent for devising imaginative solutions to every-day problems in the home. For example, he offers us his take on a super-de-luxe coffee maker (that looks a lot like a complex twenty-first century expresso machine), a method of frittering a banana using electricity and various gadgets to help with childcare. Ultimately, the authors conclude that tolerance, compromise and being helpful are key characteristics of a perfect husband, if only to ensure that he can 'earn a reputation for thoughtfulness that will stand him in good stead whenever he wishes to touch his mother-in-law for a fiver!' If, in addition to being a perfect spouse, you also love gardening (even though you live in a flat), you have a car and you play golf then you will find much to amuse and inform you in our other titles by Heath Robinson and K. R. G. Browne: •How to Live in Flat •How to Make a Garden Grow •How to be a Motorist •Humours of Golf. All our Heath Robinson titles include a Foreword by Geoffrey Beare, Trustee of the William Heath Robinson Trust, who is working to build a Heath Robinson museum in North London.

'How to Live in a Flat', if posed as a question, is worth asking today with so many articles on tiny flats with hugely inflated price tags in the newspapers. Flat-dwellers were faced with very similar problems in 1936. During 1932 and 1933 Heath Robinson had drawn a series of cartoons for 'The Sketch' entitled 'Flat Life', which depicted various gadgets designed to make the most of the limited space available in the contemporary flat. It was this series of drawings that provided K. R. G. Browne and W. Heath Robinson with the inspiration for their first full-length book together. It was called 'How to Live in a Flat' and, as well as greatly extending the original ideas showing many ingenious ways of overcoming the problems caused by lack of space in flats and bungalows, the book also provided much fun at the expense of the more extreme designs in thirties furniture and architecture. The book was published for Christmas 1936 and was well received. 'How to Live in a Flat' is surprisingly relevant to life in Britain in 2014. In fact, several of Heath Robinson's space-economising solutions have been used in practice to maximise the use of space in small flats. We have beds that fold down from wardrobes fully-made and ready to sleep in, communal rubbish shoots, central heating and multi-purpose furniture. So Heath Robinson was way ahead of his time and reading 'How to Live in a Flat' may spark other innovative solutions to making life bearable in a tiny twenty-first century home!If, in addition to being a flat-dweller (perhaps in a garden flat), you are also married with a car and you play golf then you will find much to amuse and inform you in our other titles by Heath Robinson and K. R. G. Browne: •How to be a Perfect Husband •How to Make a Garden Grow •How to be a Motorist •Humours of Golf. All our Heath Robinson titles include a Foreword by Geoffrey Beare, Trustee of the William Heath Robinson Trust, who is working to build a Heath Robinson museum in North London.