My beloved best friend bought me this hilarious book for my birthday. It was so enjoyable, you end up whizzing through it.
The book is a collection of answers from agony aunts from various publications from about the 1850s to late 1960s. We only get to see the questions/problems in a few of them - I don't know whether this is because they didn't publish them then, just alluded to them, or the author thought it better not to include them. However, this actually makes it better as some of the answers are so intriguing its very amusing to wonder what the problem was in the first place. The problems range from finding a spouse, keeping yourself decent, which entertainment was the right sort for a lady, career advice and health advice.
As you can imagine, most of the answers are funny to us as they are just plain ridiculous. Take for instance the popular question of making oneself taller - most answers instructs the reader to make a potion of various nasty sounding chemicals and drink it several times a day. Another lists laying deadly still at night and keeping the legs straight at all times!
Its insightful to see how women worried about finding a husband - some are quite racey; stepping out with several boys a week and then wondering why not one wanted to go steady with her, smoking and drinking not attracting men; women newly married bored of their husbands. Other women worried that their fiance would find out about their false teeth and hair.
This makes a brilliant stocking filler type present and is a good one to dip in and out of.
Thanks Pug
xxx
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