What Every Woman Should Know

This is a delightful book, found amongst the magazines in WHSmiths, stuffed full of articles and images from The Daily Mail in the 1930s. It has 'household hints' (such as how to repair a suede golf jacket that has ripped at the shoulder); recipes ('What You Can Do With Salmon'), fashion tips ('How I Spend My Dress Allowance') and beauty pointers, all given with the tone of a slightly impatient school nurse. As amusing - and possibly even useful - as some of these hints are, it is without doubt the images for which one buys What Every Woman Should Know, and they really are stunning. The pages are thick and shiny, and I have a feeling lots of these photos are going to end up on my walls; the section on hats is to die for.

As my banner (and the fact that I was given a gramophone for my birthday recently) might indicate, I am a bit of a retro queen, and the 1930s, that Mitford heyday, is one of my favourite eras. If you, too, are fascinated by the daily glamour of the period in which our modern world began, this is an absolute must.