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The Big Tufty Book

Book
1975 (printed)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

This book was published by the Royal Society for Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA), featuring the Tufty characters created by Elsie Mills in 1953. Tufty featured in a number of books and safety instructions for the society and in 1961 the Tufty Club was set up as a nationwide network of local groups. At the club meetings, usually once a month, children were told stories, encouraged to join in games, read the Tufty books together and take home the message of road safety. This book would have been produced to capitalise on the Tufty club phenomenon, which by 1973 had more than 10 000 affiliated clubs and over two million members.
Although Tufty was restylised in 1979, and again in 1993, his presence in RoSPA campaigns has much diminished over the ensuing years. Local Tufty clubs have been wound down and little merchandise is available on their website, but he is still used by the RoSPA in publications and educational packs for schools.

Object details

Categories
Object type
TitleThe Big Tufty Book (assigned by artist)
Materials and techniques
Printed and bound paper.
Brief description
Hardback book, The Big Tufty Book by Elsie Mills with drawings by Kenneth Langstaff, published by RoSPA 1975
Physical description
Hardback book containing 61 numbered coloured printed pages, featuring anthropomorphised woodland animal characters from the Tufty series.
Dimensions
  • Height: 31cm
  • Width: 21.8cm
Production typeMass produced
Credit line
Given by J M Harvey on behalf of the Theydon Bois Tufty Club
Subjects depicted
Literary referenceTufty created by Elsie Mills MBE
Summary
This book was published by the Royal Society for Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA), featuring the Tufty characters created by Elsie Mills in 1953. Tufty featured in a number of books and safety instructions for the society and in 1961 the Tufty Club was set up as a nationwide network of local groups. At the club meetings, usually once a month, children were told stories, encouraged to join in games, read the Tufty books together and take home the message of road safety. This book would have been produced to capitalise on the Tufty club phenomenon, which by 1973 had more than 10 000 affiliated clubs and over two million members.
Although Tufty was restylised in 1979, and again in 1993, his presence in RoSPA campaigns has much diminished over the ensuing years. Local Tufty clubs have been wound down and little merchandise is available on their website, but he is still used by the RoSPA in publications and educational packs for schools.
Collection
Accession number
B.111-2011

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Record createdJanuary 5, 2012
Record URL
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