I often find myself laughing out loud while browsing shop shelves stocked with greeting cards which feature old photographs which have had cheeky and often very rude captions added to them.
This book is in a similar vein, but even better.
With her tongue planted very firmly in her cheek, author Ada, who apparently has been married eight times, has drawn on the Mills & Boon heritage of more than 100 years’ publishing for women to provide a guidebook packed with the sort of vital advice the modern gal needs to survive in today’s world.
In the vein of those vintage photo cards and The Ladybird/Enid Blyton Books for Grown-ups, the book brings together nostalgic black and white photographs and teams each with one with a piece of dating/womanly advice.
Working its way from A-Z it is laugh out loud funny. For example, D stands for Dating Apps. “Our unique algorithy will use a range of metrics to find your perfect match,” they say when what they really mean is “Our unpaid intern will pull names out of a bin, and you’ll end up with some hat collecting freak.”
H for Happily Ever After and serves as a warning to readers that fairy tales they read as a child will lead to disappointment as an adult – no woodland animal will ever clean your flat for example, while you’ll wait forever for a pumpkin to turn into a taxi.
The combination of silly photographs, some of which will have you scratching your head and wondering why they were taken in the first place, and witty advice makes this the sort of book you can pick up any time you feel in need of a chuckle and although it’s aimed at women, I’m sure men will get a kick out of it too.