People With A Purpose

In 1955 C.G.L. Du Cann threw down the gauntlet to every slacker and slouch in the land. His TEACH YOURSELF TO LIVE was a rallying cry for those no longer content to coast along the slow lane of the highway of life. Whether we wanted to keep budgerigars for profit and pleasure, study the art of origami or get up to speed with milk farming and practical concreting, over 700 titles have persuaded us that there is no skill, trade, pastime, or pursuit we can't master without application. This anniversary Teach Yourself edition is an affectionate tribute to that apparently insatiable desire for self improvement and reflects the enormous changes in fashions, tastes, and social attitudes that have taken place in the 70 year reign of the ground-breaking series. So dive in, dear reader, and as you swim in the Lido of knowledge and human achievement, muse on the finer points of Samoan or Serbo-Croat and consider how you might learn to lay bricks, keep bees and fly planes.