Last refreshed at 0600GMT Friday The best five books on everything | 30 July 2010

Railway Ribaldry

W Heath Robinson
Image of Railway Ribaldry
They’re cartoons, but they’re also diagrams of machines. They’re funny, but they always work. You can see instantly what the machine does. They look overly complex, and they are, but there’s no decoration in them. It’s all storytelling. This book had a huge influence on me.