Object number
2010/142
Title
The Open Road,
Collection
Exhibition
Creator
Description
This is a hard back edition of ‘The Open Road’ by H. J. Deverson (1908–1972), with illustrations by Ronald Lampitt (1906–1988). It was published by Oxford University Press in 1962, and has a hand-written dedication on the inside page, ‘To Martin & Karen, April 19, 1966’. John and Joanna, the two protagonists in the story, are taken on a journey to the seaside by Uncle George in his Hillman Minx car. The story portrays a countryside dominated by the motor vehicle and its needs, but with no negative tone – traffic and the countryside are in harmony.
Physical description
book: paper
Archival history
Collecting 20thc Rural Culture blog [Thursday, 17 June 2010] – ‘The Open Road, 1962 // The same team of Lampitt and Deverson that produced The Map that came to Life in 1948 came up with The Open Road fourteen years later. It's John and Joanna again but this time Uncle George takes them in his Hillman Minx on a journey from his farm in the country to the seaside. // The countryside has lost none of its allure but it's a different countryside now, one that has become colonised by, and is completely dependent upon, the motor vehicle and all its needs, from road signs to petrol stations and AA motor cycle patrols. 'There are nearly nine million motor vehicles of all kinds on the road', Uncle George proudly tells John. // There is no negative tone to this: traffic and countryside are in harmony. // The car provides a means of exploring the countryside. // John and Joanna enjoy looking round the inside of a Bedford Dormobile camper van. // When they encounter a motorway (the first stretch of the M1 opened in 1959), 'John and Joanna were thrilled at their first sight of the broad, spacious carriageways with their three traffic lanes on each side of the central grass strip'. It too was at one with the rural landscape and the love affair with the motor car was complete.’, Collecting 20thc Rural Culture blog [Thursday, 10 June 2010] – ‘The Map that came to Life, 1948 // The book was first published by Oxford University Press in 1948 and was the work of Harry Deverson (1908–1972), a picture editor well-known in the magazine and newspaper world, who produced the text and his brother-in-law Ronald Lampitt (1906–1988) who was responsible for the illustrations. Lampitt's work spanned a wide range of popular commercial art from posters for the Great Western Railway in the 1930s to magazines and books, including Ladybird books, over the following decades. In respect to this book, his time spent in RAF intelligence during World War II producing drawings from maps for bomber crews seems to have been a decisive influence. Here we have a countryside as seen from the air with all the features indicated on the map carefully picked out on the ground.’
Production place
, Greater London [region]
Production date
1962 - 1962
Object name
Material
Associated subject