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Author: Balliol, Anne, Hopton, Ralph Y.

Social & cultural history

Published on 21 September 2023 by Bodleian Library in the United Kingdom.

Hardback | 128 pages, 11 Illustrations, black and white
117 x 178 x 17 | 220g

Ever needed tips on how to sleep next to a snoring spouse? How to convalesce in style? Or the etiquette of staying in a haunted house? This humorous book was originally published in the 1930s as an amusing guide for married couples. Poking fun at wives and husbands in an even-handed manner, it is both witty and quaint, giving a glimpse of middle-class life of a bygone era, but also offering up some universal advice which still rings true today. For example, ‘Choose bedside books for their soporific qualities’, or, ‘one whisky-and-soda on retiring… makes the average man forget the dullest dinner and sends him to bed in a glow of good will.’ With sections on hot-water bottles, robes de nuit, breakfast in bed, the best kind of pillow, sneaking home late and night-time readers, this is the perfect, self-improving gift for your favourite bedfellow.