One of the words that best summarises the 1960s is surely ‘style’. Style in its most basic form is the magical blend of form and function which fuses together to create a meaningful and hopefully timeless statement. As the booming English electronics industry entered that swinging 60s era, it correctly realised that in order...Read More

For me one of the joys of what I do is to be constantly surprised and challenged by the way people have invented gadgets for the genuine betterment of society. And while some of those ideas sadly disappear into obscurity far too quickly, their concepts can often live on through the work of others. A...Read More

The Second World War is widely remembered as a technological war in which both sides raced to out-manoeuvre their opponent using cutting-edge science. And while many of those innovations would subsequently have a lasting global impact such as the invention of Radar, Jet Engines and the Atomic Bomb, not every idea would prove to be...Read More

More than any other medium, cassette tape was to dominate the recorded music and data market for nearly the whole second half of the 20th Century. From groovy reel to reel tapes, compact cassettes with their colourful boxes and big hi-tech computer data reels, all were based off a clever idea that simply required a...Read More

As we celebrate 30 years of what has become the marvel of the World Wide Web it is perhaps worth remembering back even further to where our digital age really all began. While the American Claude Shannon and Bell Labs are rightfully credited with being the founders of the information age, we Brits can still...Read More

Back in the 1950s and 60s no self-respecting Spy Agency would leave home without their trusted Minifon wire-recorder. Indeed while the Cold War was in full swing, these little devices had the somewhat unique kudos of being used (probably simultaneously) by the CIA, FBI, KGB and Stasi among others. At only 7 inches long and...Read More

(as featured in West Country Life- June 2018) Mention ‘CB Radio’ to most people and they will instantly mime holding a mic and spew phrases like ‘breaker-breaker-9’, ‘big 10-4 rubber duck’ in a bad US accent or even start singing the theme tune to ‘Convoy’.  Interestingly for a craze that burned out over 30 years...Read More

  When you think of space age design, it is usually the 1950s or 60s that will instantly spring to mind. Who can ignore those spindly atomic legs on a sideboard, bold geometric patterns on the curtains or Jetsons-style tailfins on the Cadillac. Indeed as the world geared up to watch the first rockets orbit...Read More

  (As published in West Country Life- Feb 2018) So it is the late 1950s and only a few years back you spent a small fortune on the latest radiogram that sits proudly in your living room. It has all the features a modern family could want including a multi-speed record player, world radio and...Read More