The captain told the telegraphists about the water pouring into the hold.” This sentence, designed to exemplify the use of nouns rather than pronouns, and others of similar provenance would seem to undermine this book’s claim to meet the needs of the beginner “at degree level, school or college”.

The dense text and free use of grammatical terminology would prelude its use by any but themost ardent of pupils in our schools. Teachers, however, will find it a useful handbook, and there is much which can be broken into digestible chunks for secondary pupils.

There are detailed sections on such things as learning preferences, memory techniques and using the Internet, as well as developing the skills of listening, reading, speaking and writing. An interesting read with much useful advice.

Richard Marsden is a writer and lecturer