Jane Austen's Guide to Good Manners Josephine Ross Bloomsbury, 208pp, £9.99 ISBN 159691274X

First, a confession: I am unmarried, untitled and committed to a career as a hack. Will this pocket volume, illustrated with Henrietta Webb's delightful watercolours, change me and my deviant kind into a more decorous breed?

With its warm tone and archaic language, Ross's text reads like a letter from a benevolent aunt, offering nuggets of Austen's insight on courtship. Take the chapter on "Calling and Conversation". Ross meticulously outlines both conventions and touches on the calling card, the decline of which I am now convinced has left a void in our social landscape. "Leaving one's card is a mark of courtesy; whether or not to return the compliment is for the person thus 'waited on' to decide." One can chuckle at such examples of social power bickering and the parallels with the murky waters of text messaging. But it is slightly disheartening to note how our modern social accessories are less elegant than their predecessors.

For anyone in the romantic wilderness looking for their Mr Knightley, this book offers an afternoon's charming pastime and some slight discomfort at the realisation that you've broken all Austen's rules.

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