Teach Yourself Etiquette and Good Manners

First published in 1958, Teach Yourself Etiquette and Good Manners is a fascinating guide packed full of both timeless advice and tips that in today's world will make you chuckle. So, if you've ever wondered how you should peel an apple at a dinner party, break-off an engagement or announce the birth of a baby in 'the proper manner', this is the book for you! A couple of extracts: Some people maintain that the skin of an apple is nutritious. On informal occasions a person desiring to remove the skin is permitted to do so with a fruit knife.

If he enjoys (and who does not?) removing the skin in one unbroken piece, he should nevertheless refrain from advertising his prowess by holding the apple so far above the plate that a foot or so of skin dangles freely downwards. When a man, having met a girl a few times in the company of other friends, invites her out to dinner or to come to a dance with him, the reason, surely, is that he finds her attractive and would like to know her better. If this feeling is not reciprocated, the girl has only to decline this and subsequent invitations on the pretext of previous engagements...After one or two such outings, the girl can raise the question of paying her own share in future.

By this time she should know something about him and be able to say in effect: 'I enjoy going out with you, I should like to do it again. But I'm earning my living, you're not a millionaire, and it's not fair that you should go on paying for both of us every time. So either I must stop going with you, which would be a pity, or you must let me pay my share.' In 2008 Teach Yourself will celebrate its 70th anniversary.

As part of our plans to commemorate this publishing phenomenon, we will publish four facsimiles of some of our quirkiest and classic titles. Each of these facsimiles will look and feel exactly like the originals; hardback, dust-jacket, end papers. They will be beautiful (and very competitively priced) little books.