'If hot soup gives you hiccoughs, you hate oysters and cannot swallow trifle with bananas lurking in it, what should one do?'

Originally published in 1958, Teach Yourself Good Manners is a fascinating and hilarious guide, packed full of both timeless advice and tips that demonstrate just how much life has changed in the 60 years since it published.

Indeed, the author, W S Norman, would doubtless be horrified by modern manners and would implore us to study his rather uptight but very funny rules for modern living.

Amusing, intriguing and sometimes rather inspiring, this handbook is a window into how life would have looked had we lived in a 'a simpler age' - in which, confusingly, they had rather a lot of strange rules.


'If your name is a difficult one, resign yourself with a good grace to hearing it mispronounced rather than make the other person feel embarrassed at having got it wrong.'

Since 1938, millions of people have learned to do the things they love with Teach Yourself. Welcome to the how-to guides that changed the modern world.